Biscuit

Another day, another grim story about budget cuts. In the last four years, benefit sanctions against people with mental illnesses have increased six hundred times. Nearly 20,000 people have had their disability benefits stopped, sometimes for weeks at a time, in an attempt to force compliance with schemes such as Welfare to Work which tries to help people back into employment. But as the charity Mind has pointed out, forcing people into financial difficulties is not exactly conducive to good mental health.

This counter-intuitive approach to recovery and work is hardly an anomaly. Mental health services in the UK are in crisis. Budgets are plummeting, and care professionals are increasingly depending upon unproven services to make severe cuts. Short term financial problems are compounding a longer standing issue – the fact that mental health has so often been the poor relative of physical health when it comes to treatment… Continue reading →