Maria Arpa
This week
Jobcentre Plus
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
The Wednesday Whisper
Now experts in Mental Health…
Here is the wording of a question that Jobseekers are expected to complete:
What words will you use to describe your condition?
- Avoid words that sound worse that they are e.g. chronic, degenerating etc.
- You may find it helpful to use official diagnosis terms e.g. Multiple Sclerosis, PTSD
- Equally you may wish to avoid terms such as Depression, ME or low back pain etc. and use more general terms such as low mood or a mental health condition, a fatigue related condition, an ongoing pain condition, etc.
Try to use language that most people would understand or relate to
I can’t help wondering how this wording came about. Am I too cynical to think this is a deliberate attempt to get service users to word things in such a way that they get refused support? It has taken a long time to get mental health issues recognised and yes, there are a lot of people with Mental Health Issues. How do we discuss this as a society. How do we take any situation where some people will need more support than others and open a dialogue that looks at the needs and the resources available so that we can have the real conversation.
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
It’s sobering to think that at the very times in our lives when we might need support, getting that support might mean jumping through hoops that we don’t have the strength to jump through. And there but for the grace of God go I.
The Wednesday Whisper
Did you ever need the support of our statutory agencies? What was your experience?
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