1.THREAD ON #DISCHARGE FROM #MentalHealth SERVICES: I’ve never been discharged from chronic #PhysicalHealth services when living with a condition. I’ve just been discharged from my local MH service, after receiving them for 20+ years with 3+ diagnoses. Where is #ParityOfCare?>
2. #MentalHealth services get rid of you for ridiculous reasons. ‘Articulate’ & ‘good insight into condition’ is wielded against patients who have lived with their condition for decades, have an intimate understanding of their health. @stephenfry is articulate & he is bipolar
3. ‘Articulate’ & ‘good insight into condition’ also applies to #epilepsy patients, but you don’t see #neurologist kicking them out of clinic. That doesn’t impact on a #MoodDisorder where being so low means struggling to get out of bed, >
4. leave your room, or feel exhausted from #masking your #MentalCondition when you are rarely outside, like anyone with chronic physical pain learns to. Medical notes from #MentalHealthServices include an obsession with how we look & interpreting it. Most people do not fit the >
5. stereotypes & #MentalHealth staff should know this. Bright #HairColour & clothes gets interpreted as presentable & a good mood. What if the only clothes in your wardrobe are bright no matter what you have grabbed from there or the laundry? >
6. The list of bizarre reasons why a person shouldn’t be ill in their opinion, despite patients explaining how these are the exhausting masking techniques used & the toll they take, feeds into the #discrimination of what ‘well’ looks like. >
7. The level of #disability; its impact on day to day life & functioning - isn’t taken into consideration. Maybe it isn’t believed. I have a litany of physical health indicators to back up the level of mental health I’ve been describing. The very tenuous conclusions based on >
8. their interpretations of symptoms I’ve explained to them, despite their own observation of ‘good insight into my own condition’, are baffling. They show the same levels of incompetence of the #RuberyHospital where #TomMain wrote his seminal paper on #MentalHealth staff >
9. #medicalising patients just to shut them up so they didn’t need to bother with them. Booting out is not even keeping up that pretence. The service is literally on the old grounds of the mothballed #RuberyHospital. The service has learnt nothing from research that despite >
10. being conducted in the 1950s still strongly impacts on research, theory, disciplines, services & their design. #LongbridgeCMHT was the worst I’ve been under since 2005, but like an #epilepsy service, I still need one. As an activist I speak out a LOT about #equality >
11. of care & the #saneism we experience. I’m in one of my worst #depressive states which has lasted yrs, barely leaving my room & ignoring communication. Responding = energy/conversation. #Vulnerability is a great time to take advantage of getting rid of a thorn in your side >
12. Not interacting with social media for so long makes posts fairly dead now, & #Musk has ensured that unless you pay, his #algorithm will bury you. I’m not up to getting back into #OnlineActivism yet - hopefully redeploying my energies again back in a few months. >
13. After my actual real, offline friends get proper Tamar love ❤️🩹❤️🥰 again and online communication too - priorities first huh - these are people here for you in your times of need! Looking forward to sharing #MadStudies & being part of the #MadCommunity again. Take care x
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1. Employers aren’t equipped to work with disabled ppl, not the other way round. Work coaches won’t make systems better, personal experience: @Keir_Starmer @leicesterliz @UKLabour & FAO: @guardian @Independent @RITB_ @DisRightsUK @johnpringdns @MITUKteam @libertyhq @labourlewis >
2. Stephen Hawking was disabled. He worked & was a genius FFS. #PIP reflects the additional costs of your #disability. Employers systems are often not set up to work with us, especially mental health conditions. A #WorkCoach can do zero to help with this. If you want >
3. more #disabled people to be able to work, you need to ensure employers systems & policies are safe, & can work with an employees needs. Can you ensure employers can financially support extended times off sick for chronic conditions like #bipolar or #CPTSD? More importantly, >
I saw an ad where two stranger footie fans sit together & over time the extrovert fan helps a grumpy fan enjoy the match. In the end the ‘happy’ fan kills himself & u see empty seat. A Hollyoaks actor asks if #TimeToTalk helps if ppl don’t listen. Chronic MH conditions need more.
2) whilst I know he said ‘talking’ & not #TimeToTalk, it raises the issues of what surface level campaigns can realistically achieve for ppl with chronic #MentalHealth conditions. We need to lead using our own experience/expertise & be funded directly to do this ourselves. >
3) Orgs LED by ppl w/chronic #MentalHealth conditions aren’t funded bc they’re not trusted w/funding. What does this say about big non Lived Experience led charities who accept funding & give us a few scraps? Do they walk the talk? Our orgs DIE. We DIE. >disabilitynewsservice.com/more-than-220-…
1) I’ve just been to @BournbrookMC surgery, crying my eyes out in the waiting room, the nurse asked me if I wanted a hug. The Dr was so kind and listened to me b4 the procedure to check I was ok. Switch to the @bsmhft #MentalHealth waiting room where security searches u & ur bag>
2) Attending #MentalHealth spaces feels criminalising and degrading from the entrance to the space itself. I’m only here because after 3/4 calls being bounced between 2 services with no call backs as promised from either while I’ve been really distressed, it’s seemed more >
3) logical physically coming to one of the buildings where the people who provide care exist rather than waiting for a never to be returned phone call. I’m scared of one service, now disappointed with the other. The difference between physical & #MentalHealth services is stark. >
1/ I actually wanted to die, slash my arms, scream at the injustice I’d experienced & everyone who caused that hurt & pain. Ppl who survive to older ages know the pain never stops being excruciating, acting out the pain doesn’t help, eventually it passes, the cycle starts again.>
2/ Pain still somatises if you don’t let it out one way or another. I’ve lost my health & my identity, a shell of who I was. But I am really lucky, because I have a support network & I don’t want to hurt them. They are rallying round, @bigwolfband have been so kind about >
3/ having to cancel two gigs because my bass playing hubby has to take yet more time off bc I had a night in a psych facility & need closer care atm. He’s losing yet more AL. Lots of ppl don’t have loved ones who will care about them when they want to die or hurt themselves. >
1/ #MadTwitter: I keep getting a call from 0800 072 0161 & Googling it I am getting mixed results on whether it’s @DWPgovuk or it being a scam call. I have a #PIP tribunal: the @CapitaPlc assessor after her usual bonus by lowering claim. Health EVEN WORSE now. Can’t even drive. >
2/ There are not adequate words for how much I loathe these people. My epilepsy is uncontrolled so although I get a free bus pass it’s not much use if I’m shaky or having absences & taxis are so fricking expensive. Plus I’ve lost my safe space mental health wise, never realised >
3/ how much I relied on my car for my independence #MentalHealth wise beyond it being just a vehicle to get from A to B til it was gone. So I’m using ‘Personal Care’ for mobility. Now the **** has dropped it Uber shares have tripled in value 😹😭😢 If I have to give some cruel >
1/Imagine working for 11y to create senior #LXP posts in an org. You hear one’s coming up, but you keep asking & get told it’s either not happening or ‘I don’t know’. Then you find out they recruited TWO posts months ago without telling you. Not naming, but you should be ashamed>
Personally I’m sick and tired of being a Mary fucking Poppins, advocating for change, seeing other ppl reap the benefit (that’s a good thing) but constantly being kicked in the c*** myself. I got bills and a roof to pay for as well. It’s not just me. Most activists who challenge>
3/ the status quo enough to change it aren’t welcome when they start to make progress. Instead the opportunities get filled by non-activists, often ppl who aren’t aware of the work that went before them. Look at the millions of PPI funding, but the LXP led orgs closing down >