APPENDIX 15
Letter from Pat Guinan The British Psychological
Society to the Chairman of the Committee (MH 42B)
RE: EFFECTS
OF BENEFIT
SYSTEMS ON
PEOPLE WITH
MENTAL HEALTH
PROBLEMS
I agreed to provide your committee with further information
about the ways in which the benefits system operates to the disadvantage
of people with mental health problems. Lancashire County Council
Welfare Rights Service, who assist a number of my clients have
prepared a short summary of the main points relating to the difficulties.
I am sure they could offer more detailed information should you
require it.
At the clinical session I had in my locality
this morning at the Community Mental Health Team offices, I had
four consecutive clients who were in this predicament. One was
a woman in her thirties brought up in care, reunited with a parent
at 17 who was then murdered, and who has suffered post traumatic
symptoms and poor self esteem leading to severely reduced social
integration and self injurious behaviour ever since and had several
hospitalisations. She has been denied DLA and is currently appealing,
but worse than this she has been challenged by the Benefits Agency
about some voluntary work she is doing in local charity shops
in an effort to build up confidence to work.
A second lady in her fifties who was doing quite
well after a lifetime of mental health problems until her husband
became psychotic and died as a result of a horrific incident which
she witnessed has been struggling to cope and needed a lot of
input from services. She is currently awaiting the review of her
DLA which is taking a long time and since one of her major problems
is obsessive ruminative worrying, I am about to write to the DLA
people in Blackpool to indicate that the process itself is pushing
her towards breakdown. Her carers and myself are not in a position
to offer cast iron reassurance that she will not lose this benefit.
Thirdly, I saw a man in his fifties with very
severe chronic anxiety and panic disorder whose symptoms and world
view have been adversely affected by a range of physical health
problems which include a heart condition and arthritis. His mobility
in particular is a problem. He is currently appealing against
being turned down for DLA.
Lastly, I saw a man in his forties with a severe
obsessive compulsive disorder which disrupts his ability to carry
out the routines of every day life. He has been turned down for
DLA, and the Welfare Rights people are trying to assist him in
putting forward the relevant information which he could not communicate
at his assessment because of his inability to stick to the point
of questions, plus a very disruptive speech impediment.
I thought it would be helpful to give you a
flavour of how this affects clients on my caseload.
9 June 2000
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