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There is almost certainly still a massive stigma attached to most forms of mental illness. The way some people behave towards these people is, quite honestly, despicable. As Teej said above, if you think someone is a danger to them selves or others then call the police. if it's someone muttering to themselves just let them be.
some mentally ill people, and they are people, do struggle to communicate with other people, that doesn't mean we should ignore them. We should help them by not stigmatising every 'nutter' we see on our streets.
Elfin safety itd be interesting to see if you thought it was still sad if one of these people beat up your kids.
Just spend an afternoon in the middle of Manchester, it seems most people are mentally unstable.
Ta swiss 🙂
Elfin safety itd be interesting to see if you thought it was still sad if one of these people beat up your kids.
Or raped his mother. Ask Elfie how he would feel if one of these people raped his mother - that's always a good one.
A very good mate of mine from school used to do alot of recreational drugs. Funny guy but has had mental health issues since. Of course its not always taking recreational drugs that causes mental illness but it can amplify and push someone over the line IMO. I stopped using them when I realised how madly depressed I was afterwards. **** that.
I walked past a bloke in a [b]suite[/b] who was shouting no, No, NO!!!!!
As above, cuts to non-statutory services like day-centres, drop ins, hostels and so on. Big Society working its magic.
They are an easy target for cuts IMO. The sorts of 'crazy people' described above invariably don't have much in the way of family and friends and so have no one else to advocate for them. The only time the 'authorities or your MP gets to hear about them is when they have done something wrong.
Despite possibly drawing the outgoing incapacity benefit or Disability Living Allowance (if they are organised enough to navigate their way through the benefits system and turn up for the medical reviews) these sorts also pay a great deal in tax to central government through duty on 'self medicating' with booze and fags, and invariably don't vote. The perfect constituent for a hands-off, low income/inheritance taxation non interventionist government, wouldn't you say? 😕
There was this bloke with a broken leg in the street, i noticed him... [b]he wasnt harming anybody[/b] by standing there with a broken leg, but [b]its unsightly and I dont want to see anything other than what I perceive as normal[/b] when I'm out and about.... the government should surely be locking him safely away in a hospital until he's completely recovered 🙄
Sorry for the sarcastic comment, but its attitudes along the lines of 'ohh they're mentally ill, they should be kept away from my kids and dear god I do not want them reminding me that some people are different when I'm sipping my starbucks coffee!' that do nothing to help reduce the sitgma surrounding mentall illness!
I see many more people chatting away to themselves on tiny almost hidden away bluetooth headsets than I do responding to auditory hallucinations when I'm out and about. The stigma and attitudes they encounter from the general public don't help and often cause sufferers to hide away even more, usually making the illness worse and more traumatic. If you suffered from a mental health problem would you feel comfortable telling everyone you know in the same way as if you'd broken a leg?
Mental illness can be boiled down to what society doesn't see as the 'norm', years ago being gay was a mental illness... if i'm not mistaken smoking cigarettes is still classed as a mental illness FFS (although you wouldn't exactly get sectioned for smoking). To be sectioned and detained under the Mental Health Act you need to be a danger to yourself or others. Having spent years working in mental health i'd much rather sit in a room full of paranoid schizophrenics than go to a football match, much less likely to get beaten up!
People seem to zero in on the psychotic disorders and the more visible ones; forgetting that a huge number of people they see walking about in town are also mentally unwell: depression/anxiety disorders/personality disorders etc etc blah blah blah..... just because its not visible in the same way a broken leg or being wheelchair-bound is doesn't mean the person suffering from mental ill health should be kept away from you good sane people because or treated any different from any other unwell person.
Hospitals aren't always the best place to treat people, being sectioned and taken into a secure/admissions unit is a traumatic experience and often the longer a patient is kept in hospital the harder it is to help them get back to a 'normal life' and the more likely they are to relapse and end up back in hospital again. My work is all about getting people out of secure units, long stay units and forensic places like Broadmoor etc back into the community by helping them learn/re-develop their skills to live in the community safely.
The last time I checked the stats were saying about 1:4 people will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their life... how many people do you have in your family? Now imagine someone you love or imagine yourself being unwell, would you want them/yourself to be locked up in hospital or receiving the support to get back to as 'normal' a life as possible?
Cuts are effecting the services dramatically but bringing everyone back into hospital isn't the way forward.... the public remembering that having a mental illness is actually a more 'normal' human experience than riding an expensive bike in the woods for example!
We're all humans, all our experiences are different... some more than others.
(sorry for the long post, i had to struggle to rant about the media and other such influences on the general public's fears and stigma about mental health)
Phil - you need to make your posts look more like poems.
Prestwich is a mecca for such types.
I didn't even flinch when a plump lady wearing a stetson, pink blouse and waistcoat and far too much rouge walked past me and smiled.
There is almost certainly still a massive stigma attached to most forms of mental illness. The way some people behave towards these people is, quite honestly, despicable. As Teej said above, if you think someone is a danger to them selves or others then call the police. if it's someone muttering to themselves just let them be.some mentally ill people, and they are people, do struggle to communicate with other people, that doesn't mean we should ignore them. We should help them by not stigmatising every 'nutter' we see on our streets.
well said. *doffs cap*
sorry yeti, i don't do poems i do lyrics
shamelessly stolen from wiki as i couldnt remember the details of when it was taken out the ICD:
The World Health Organization's ICD-9 (1977) listed homosexuality as a mental illness; it was removed from the ICD-10, endorsed by the Forty-third World Health Assembly on May 17, 1990.[70][71] Like the DSM-II, the ICD-10 added ego-dystonic sexual orientation to the list, which refers to people who want to change their gender identities or sexual orientation because of a psychological or behavioral disorder
Firstly i would agree with philconsequence post.
I also work in the field of mental health; while our funding has not been cut, we have never had much and are scarily under resourced, it has not been increased. However lots of agencies we rely on are being cut.
Our waiting lists are sky high, as a result of "wider society issues??".
There are attempts being made for us to become a social enterprise, a disaster waiting to happen, as we will have to compete to sell our services!!
I should add i work with under 18's.