Email #26

Dear Harriet

Today has been one of those days where my medication has affected me greatly.  It can take some getting used to taking anti depressants and they can have an impact on you as you get used to them.  I find they knock me out quite quickly but the depth of sleep is so significantly different to the light and broken and at times no existent sleep that I am used to naturally, is having an impact on me.  I wake up feeling as though I am heavily sedated despite the low dosage, not "refreshed" like most people do from a decent nights sleep.

I often find in the afternoon that I feel quite tired too.  For the last couple of days the groggy feeling has lasted all day.  Today it was so bad I couldnt do the work I had piled up on my desk- I will now have to make time over the weekend for that.  At some point around lunch time I fell asleep, and only woke when my sister rang me to find out where I was around 2.30.  Had she not done that I might have still been asleep when the children needed collecting from school.   As it was, despite the coffee from the community-lead project across from the school, I was still pretty zombiefied when I did collect them.

This, for me, is part of the reality of living with a mental health condition.  This is part of the reason I am self employed.  No employer would put up with me oversleeping and not getting to work on time, no employer would put up with me taking 2 weeks off every time I had a change in medication, no employer would put up with me cognitively impaired while my body adjusted to medication or a fluctuation in my sleep pattern.  For others, even self employment isnt an option.

And no, I am sorry to tell you, a 6 session course of voluntary NHS CBT did not cure me last year so it is highly doubtful a 6 session course of involuntary Job Centre Plus CBT would cure me.

Today, members of the Mental Health Resistence Network, supported by members of DPAC, staged a protest at Streatham Job Centre Plus.  The mainstream media for the most part ignored this protest, so I doubt you will have heard of it- its not as exciting as wheelchair users "storming parliament" or a terrorist attack in Grenoble.  But if you have a look at The Guardian online there is a piece about it on there.

The DWP have been vocal in their demonisation of the poor and those reliant on state welfare.  They are adamant there is no link between sanctions and food bank usage (despite usage being at an all time high and plenty of academic research that says there most certainly IS a link) and Ian Duncan Smith is certain there is no record of any deaths caused by sanctions (despite David Cameron saying the figures will be published "shortly")  so the Right Wing Mainstream Media have been equally vocal about their plans to install counselors trained in CBT to force people with mental health issues to receive treatment that is regarded by most experts as being at best, only any use for "some" patients so long as there is no history of trauma or diagnosis of learning difficulties and at worst a short term solution that is by no means a cure.  Many psychologists have actually said CBT can be very UN-helpful for a lot of people- and this was certainly my experience.

Mental health service users already report increased fear, anxiety and anguish due to welfare reforms and sanctions and this has lead to an increase in suicide rates.  Experts are in agreement that CBT does not work for everyone, and is completely ineffectual if patients are forced into it by means of coercion, either directly with sanctions or indirectly with the perception that sanctions may be applied if a client is seen to be non-compliant.

Treatment that is given because a client has been coerced into receiving it is not only ineffectual, it is immoral and unethical.  It also furthers the stigma that unemployment is due to the person who is unemployed and is a temporary state that can be cured by simple "reprogramming".  Unemployed people are not broken machines who you can call an engineer out to repair: mental health is far more complex.  The idea that unemployment is a psychological disorder is at best incorrect and at worst a dangerous myth to be perpetuating.

The British Association of Cog native Behaviour Practitioners released a statement on this matter saying:

"the position of BABCP’s Board of Trustees is that BABCP is against any offer of any treatment (including CBT) based on coercion or associated with unfair or disproportionate inducements. This applies to whether CBT interventions are offered as part of therapy, research, or in any other context (for example, corporate training/development). Coercion is defined by BABCP as the threat of punishment, and unfair and disproportionate inducements are defined by us as rewards for participation which are such that an individual is pressurised by the extent or form of the inducement to accept an offer which they would otherwise refuse."

Now is the time for Labour to speak up against this and speak out in support of those who might fall victim to yet another cruel game of this incumbent government that sees those who are reliant on state welfare as an underclass to be purged.

Say NO to forced treatment.

Speak up in parliament against this.  Show those the electorate that you are the party in opposition, OPPOSING such dangerous games that at best are nothing more than a waste of tax payers money. Show the electorate that the 2020 election is not something you will start to be thinking about in 2019.

Every day, ordinary people are fighting back, not just for six months before every election.  Join with them.

Fight back against the attempts of social cleansing and purges of the underclass.

Represent us.  After all, that is what you are paid to do.

Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user

Full statement here:
http://www.babcp.com/About/Press/Coercive-Therapy-Proposals-for-Jobcentres-Statement-From-BABCP-Board.asp