PPlog

Mental Health Resistance Network: Judicial Review  Members of the Mental Health Resistance Network (MHRN) have been working with a solicitor towards making a claim for a Judicial Review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) which is the assessment used to determine whether we will be granted Employment Support Allowance or sent back to work (if there is any work to be found!). MHRN are just focussing on people who claim on mental health grounds.   MHRN are now at a critical stage in this process as they are very close to being able to make the claim for Judicial Review. However, before theycan do this, it would help if they could find stories that will show the court what sort of problems the WCA causes. So they are looking for people who have been through the process and would be able to tell us about their experience. If people wish, MHRN can present their cases anonymously when they use their evidence. Although it ...

This is a report on a meeting between NALM (National Association of LINks Members) and government representatives. Attribution is at the foot of the report.   Meeting with Earl Howe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health December 14th 2011 Attendance -Earl Howe, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health -Baroness Northover, Government Whip in the Lords and Spokesperson on Health -John Wilderspin (National Director, Health and Wellbeing Board Implementation) -Kasey Chan (Implementation Lead for Public and Patient Engagement - HealthWatch policy) -Katy Knight (Earl Howe's office) -Ruth Marsden (Vice Chair NALM), -Malcolm Alexander (Chair NALM) Healthwatch Pathfinders We discussed the need to ensure that the HW resources, ( £60 m), which will be made available by the Department of Health, are used specifically and effectively to develop LINks into Healthwatch and to create more powerful and influential bodies to represent the public in the...

I'm still reeling. On the twenty first of November, I sent a formal complaint to the Norfolk & Norwich hospital about the issue of my damaged leg as shown in the photograph at  http://micoxpplog.blogspot.com/2011/10/ossur-unloader-one-knee-brace_28.html I received a response from the Chief Executive on the ninth of December. In a two page letter, all she does is accuse me of "aggression" and threaten me with exclusion from their hospital services under their "Zero Tolerance Policy." There is no mention whatever of the minor wounds to my leg. This threat to exclude me from healthcare very effectively stops me making face to face inquiries at the hospital about the device that caused the problem. I don't know if further correspondence about my complaint will also be construed as "aggressive" and a risk to being unable to use that particular hospital. I suppose this strategy could be used widely to tame service users protesting about their r...

This organisation is massively valuable and a boon to everyone involved in any concerns about community action. Don’t miss it. I’ve just posted this on their forum on Whistleblowing: I'm sorry I missed the webinars but we need to keep this important subject alive. As one of the inaugural members of Freedom to Care and the presenter of the social work case for BASW at the Freedom to Care Parliamentary launch in 1992, I'm very concerned that we should remember that organisation and its founder, Geoff Hunt, who did some amazing work (in parallel with Public Concern at Work) fighting for recognition of real protection for whistleblowers. Freedom to Care was thrown into the universal layby bin around 2005 but luckily the main website (which grew faster than Topsy) was archived by the British Museum. I do see though, that a new clean and simple website called Freedom to Care is alive and well at http://www.freedomtocare.org/ Perhaps it's Geoff. The original can be seen at: http:...

Just one quote from this excellent document: 4.1.1 We are very concerned about the numbers of disabled people taking their own lives and the connection that these deaths have with the budget cuts. There have been several recent suicides among disabled people across the UK that appear to have been as a direct consequence of people losing or not qualifying for disability and housing benefits. We are concerned that the suicide rate connected to cuts to these benefits will rise as the effects of the proposed Welfare Reform Bill, once implemented, are felt. Click on the title.