Re: The disturbing truth about disability assessments
I have been asked to post this anonymously.
A father writes: I took my 35 year-old daughter to an 'assessment'. She has borderline personality disorder manifest particularly by extreme anxiety, memory loss, and a particular inability to understand other people and the nuances of interpersonal interaction. She has had psychotic episodes and been hospitalised in two units. She has IBS, arthritis and tinnitus.
She failed the 'assessment', which was conducted by a 'trained health professional' and has been denied income support: she is now without any benefits or any source of income. The fact that her psychiatrist, her psychologist, her counsellor and her social worker have said that she will never be capable of any kind of paid employment was of zero importance. As far as I could see, the fact that she is neither doubly incontinent nor unable to lift at least one limb above her head was all that mattered. She would not allow me to submit an appeal for her because she cannot cope with 'official' situations."
I am deeply concerned that our system allows this to happen.
Rapid Response:
Re: The disturbing truth about disability assessments
I have been asked to post this anonymously.
A father writes: I took my 35 year-old daughter to an 'assessment'. She has borderline personality disorder manifest particularly by extreme anxiety, memory loss, and a particular inability to understand other people and the nuances of interpersonal interaction. She has had psychotic episodes and been hospitalised in two units. She has IBS, arthritis and tinnitus.
She failed the 'assessment', which was conducted by a 'trained health professional' and has been denied income support: she is now without any benefits or any source of income. The fact that her psychiatrist, her psychologist, her counsellor and her social worker have said that she will never be capable of any kind of paid employment was of zero importance. As far as I could see, the fact that she is neither doubly incontinent nor unable to lift at least one limb above her head was all that mattered. She would not allow me to submit an appeal for her because she cannot cope with 'official' situations."
I am deeply concerned that our system allows this to happen.
Competing interests: author of the article