General Chat

It has been reported that Members of Parliament, Peers, and their staff are to get a mental health clinic after a growing number report suffering depression and anxiety.

I think this is another plan that has not been properly thought through, maybe they should consider reviewing the Mental Health Act before they proceed with this plan.

If they don't, especially when you look at how they behave during Prime Ministers Question Time, we could see the largest number of people gathered in one place being sectioned under the provisions of the current Mental Health Act ;-)

Whatever will they want next - hmm I better not say what I am thinking in case itchy finger is on duty :-\

So the mental health clinic that everyone else has is not good enough for them, WE have to give them their own exclusive clinic,

I'm sorry if this is not acceptable to some members but if these politicians are suffering depression and anxiety as a result of their work then may be they are in the wrong job

Roy

Winston Churchill was a sufferer, he managed to do his job pretty well, despite it.

Gwynne

They should make do with the doctors like the rest of us.

what Muffy says

I suffer from clinical depression and have therefore used the mental health services, I also worked in mental health for nigh on thirty years and whilst mental health is at the bottom of the pile when it comes to fnancing, the service I received was excellent - they have the power to alter things if they are not good enough for them to use so why donlt they do just that

if this goes ahead I shall be protesting mos strongly to everyone connected

They,ve already got a place, :-D :-D Its called "The House Of Lords" :-D

they should have one of those clinics on here
cause if your nuts when you join you soon are ;-) ;-)

I don't like seeing this sort of criticism for any attempts to help people with mental problems of depression, anxiety etc. There is still far too much of regarding them as a failure instead of conditions which should have medical help - not to have phrases like "nuts". And an in-house clinic is probably much easier for those with problems to attend.

( I do realise Joy you were probably using the word to lighten up!)

Edit: I have altered lthe wording of my original comment, too many negatives distorting what I was trying to say

well speaking as someone with a mental health condition I take no offence whatsoever at Joy's posting

the sooner mental health problems are dealt with in the same way as any other illness, e.g. broken limbs, heart problems, skin conditions, the better

it's just another illness - people must not be afraid to talk about it as if it is a hush hush problem - I have no problems talking about my clinical depression - I took a massive overdose in 1996 - it's other people who seem to have the problem

Thank you Ann but its true
Elizebeth we are all a bit strange sometimes in our own ways
thats what makes us special :-D :-D

where i live we deal with things with humour :-D

I totally agree with AnnCardiff, the sooner mental health problems are dealt with in the same way as any other illness the better. I personally have witnessed the distress, damage, tragedy, and sadness, that depression and anxiety can cause.

However I do not agree with this proposal, they say they have set aside £25,000 for this, not a large sum, but that is not the point.

This is yet another perk for those who keep telling us we are all in this together, well we are not, we do not get subsidised meals, subsidised drinks, subsidised accommodation, and goodness knows what other subsidies and perks, nor are we able to claim expenses via a system that is wide open to abuse.

As AnnCardiff said they have the power in their hands to make changes, changes that would benefit everyone, instead of setting something up to benefit the privileged few who are fortunate to sit in Parliament.

An awful lot of people working in local government are suffering from workload stress.
The Government has cut funding, people have lost jobs, and the rest of us can (apparently) do the work of 2 or 3!! Not only that, Hampshire County Council has 're-graded' it's workers. Result? A 'downgrading' (of course) followed by a cut in pay and 4 years of a pay freeze - essentially further pay cuts.
What do we get for the stress?
Capability procedures because of the amount of sick leave we have.
I had a stage 1 just before Christmas - in the 'concluding' letter, indicating what I had to do - not be off work for the next 6 months - not once was the workload stress (and the resulting physical disease caused by it) mentioned!!

My appeal is on Monday. Not so much an appeal, more me going in all guns blazing :-P :-P :-P

We have an Employment Support line at work. I phoned them for help & advice - they said they could discuss the emotional problems I have!! I pointed out I didn't have ay emotional problems, just high anxiety & stress caused by my workload. The response? 'We'll see dear'. In other words, we're going to blame your home life. Oh - and no-one calls me dear!!

Hampshire County Council have some expensive flash new offices in Sussex Street Winchester. I worked for them for some time when Lord Porchester was leader of the council. Lord P. saw the county as an extension of his estates and was less than thrilled with our activities, building motorways and such.

The problem for much of the public service is that actually having to do a hard day's work day in day out is in itself stressful. Oh if we all had 12 days sick leave to be used as leave, 25-30 days paid holiday, flexi weekends, indexed linked pensions and so on :-)

All the employees who complain should try a month with Tesco (ask John Cocoa) and they'd soon know which was the jam side of the bread.

:-P

Amazingly, Rollo, not all of us can afford the pension.
Not all of us can work 'flexi' or from home - we're needed in the office to answer calls for the overpaid managers who are 'working' from home and, unsurprisingly, not answering their 'work' mobile.
The managers weren't re-graded, just us Admin.

I don't know which department you workd for, but if it was the Environment department - I worked there for a while years ago - and yes it was cushy, in fact it probably still is one of the cushiest departments.

Things have changed though.
In the department I work in, I know how much work 5 people were doing 4 years ago, and know that the 5 of us doing this work now are doing at least 3 trimes the amount.

I have worked for the private sector, at least the management there knew their jobs. The work was much easier. It had really 'full on' moments, but it wasn't relentless. They didn't decide that if a job was being done really well, a bit more had better be added, then a bit more etc etc, until it's too much - then we can declare that you can't do your job and there's no way you'll ever progress!!

I

Merging NALGO with UNISON hasn't changed much then.
So it goes.

No - if anything, the Unions are just mouthpieces for the Council.
The one I had to represent me was useless - fortunately I'd done all the research etc for my case.
Oh - and the HR representative was an ex union man!!!

Great for them, but our local Mental Health centre closed their waiting lists in March, I am still waiting for an appointment to try and get help for my ocd, they did nothing to help me when I first attended in 1974 and looks as tho I still won't get the help I need.

Lizx