United Kingdom

Sounds like Sunak is trying to pry medical assessment out of the hands of doctors/other current professionals and into the realm of the more "economically motivated" shall we say. As well as potentially downplaying just how serious a concern the state of mental health response is in...I was going to say Britain but in a lot of countries honestly.

The state of the mental health system in the UK is absolutely disgusting.

If people could actually access help I'm certain less would be off work.

"Enough of this wishy washy woke looney liberal mental health support nonsense. In the good old days we simply self-medicated with smoking, alcoholism, affairs and domestic violence. It never did us any harm, until we died in our 50s, to the great relief of our long-suffering, abused families"

Good ol' Tory 'common sense' :P

getting “work and health professionals” to issue fit notes, shifting away from GP

“I don’t care if your doctor said you can’t work. Heres a fit note. Get back to work”

As a disabled person, can I just say FUCK SUNAK AND HIS ENTIRE FUCKING HORRIBLE PARTY!

He could always fund public health initiatives in order to help stop people becoming ill in the first place rather than forcing sick people into work. Lol. Who am I kidding? A tory wanting improvements for the general public? Ridiculous.

Interesting that he chooses 2010 as his historical low for acceptance of claims.

With sbsolutly no sign of realisation. That many of those rejected in the early days. Went on to win court cases at well over 60%.

Now after many lost cases and slow changes in policy. Hmm over 60% acceptance is an issue.

With 0 recognition that people trying to claim such benifits are way more likely to be in need then people not.

He has had it rubbed in his face that the original set up was falsely rejecting claims. Butstill wants to use it as evidence that 22% is the level of acceptance he should expect.

I trully wish KS was willing to challenge him on the utter crap of choosing that date.

I have an idea right, instead of like, treating mental illness, how about we all claim it doesn't exist, that way nobody has it and we'll all be fine!!

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Rishi Sunak will today claim Britain is suffering from a “sicknote culture”, as he warns there is a risk of “over-medicalising” normal worries by diagnosing them as mental health conditions.

Sunak will say he is concerned about the increase in long-term sickness since the pandemic, largely driven by mental health conditions with 2.8 million people now “economically inactive”.

In relation to mental health, he will say he would “never dismiss or downplay the illnesses people have”, but also argue that there is a need to be “more honest about the risk of over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life”.

His language echoes that of Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, who has claimed that too often doctors “label or medicalise” conditions which in the past were seen as “the ups and downs of life”.

The law was changed last year to allow fit notes to be issued by any doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist or occupational therapist in addition to GPs, who have traditionally overseen the system.

Ruth Rankine, the director of the NHS Confederation’s primary care network, said its members had “long advocated for a review of the fit note process which could be more effectively managed through trained professionals that support people back into work”.

The original article contains 950 words, the summary contains 208 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Sunak’s disability benefit plans are familiar culture war fodder

Rishi Sunak’s big speech on reforming disability benefits was intended to show that the government had a grip on the economic and health challenges of the UK’s rising levels of long-term sickness. Instead, it came over as an administration running out of ideas, high on strident rhetoric, and desperate to cut welfare bills at all costs.

The Tories have gone out of their way to make working beneficial for people other than those actually doing the working. Some offshore toting moron called Dave decided that austerity was the way to go. So we did.

(Less than) Curiously, the law of unintended consequences kicked in: people are not working because it doesn't do them any good. They're so pissed off and downhearted that they're not even fucking - the birth rate is well below replacement level.

Everything I see around me reminds me of 1970s Britain when we were forced to join the EU because the country was bankrupt. They're even advertising those chairs that are suspended from the ceiling, and everything is coloured brown again. "Abigail's Party" will be coming to Netflix next week.

I write as one of Thatcher's children who loved the 1980s.

I currently advocate Anarchy (using the formal definition of anarchy not what you imagine it is), or our mate Guido with a decent level of follow through.