Letter to MP..about personal and wider issues

Won't go on about it..will just copy it..think it speaks for itself.

Dear Mr Selous

I am writing for 2 reasons. Firstly, to update you on my father’s care. He is now in Townsend Court Psychiatric Unit and has been there for a few weeks. I have visited him on several occasions and kept daily contact. I have also been liasing with Chris Bradley-Rushe, up until his annual leave, and with another Director until his return.

My father is mostly morose and despairing but, at least, he is safe for the time being. He informed me that he is going to have ECT (as a kind of last resort) but need to check this with a senior member of Townsend Court staff. I have concerns about the ECT but I appreciate my father needs to make decisions about his treatment as fits his ability to do so (with support of MH staff) and will abide by what he thinks is best in this particular regard. I do however, have continuing concerns about his long term care and hope that these are also being looked into by mental health professionals. My father insists that he does not wish to return to his existing accommodation and I feel that for him to be made to return there might well lead to another suicide attempt. This, I believe, can and should be avoided.

My second reason for writing is the Government Green Paper on Care Reform. I am quite angry really that people with mental illness have been, and continue to be, mostly excluded from this consultation period. I only found out about it by a friend on the internet. When I spoke to other people I know with mental illness they had heard nothing about it and more importantly, the vast majority of them do not have computers or access to the consultation process. This means that many important views will be missed.

My own personal view, based on the quality of my life, is that Disability Living Allowance provides me with access to interests and support, I otherwise would not get. For example, I use my mobility allowance to get taxis to see my father and to get to appointments that must take place. I also use it to pay for the petrol when I need to get out or to pay for their bus fares on the rare occasion I have to use public transport. It does not fully cover these costs but it helps in part.

I was assessed as needing DLA not just because of the agoraphobia I suffer but because the assessment process included a quality of life aspect. It was deemed it would help me to be more involved in things. It certainly has enriched my life because I have used the money to buy seeds, plants and flowers for my garden and find tending these and sitting out in the garden very therapeutic. I also make cards…a hobby which I can do from home and with a friend, again, providing a therapeutic distraction from my illness and positive outlet.

I understand the debate around the care component but in all honesty, Mr Selous, DLA was, in essence, provided to stop the severely disabled being caught in poverty traps with no quality of life. For sure, I would have very little quality of life without DLA and my biggest fear is that it will get eaten up in a Social Services pot and people like myself, who have no contact with social services, will have no personal capacity to have any quality of life or appropriate care from that organisation. In fact, my experience of dealing with social services for my father is that they provided minimul support -15 minutes of a Private carer’s time each day (he has to pay for his meal service) and then discharged him from their care.

I think there are deeper issues than saving money from those who are already struggling financially. I appreciate that the country is in a financial mess but that is not the fault of the disabled and they should not suffer because of it. The deeper issue in regards to care is to do with the ability of the public sector to deliver the right care and when it is needed and my experience of it, is that without you, both myself and my father would not have any input from public services at all.

Apologies for swamping you but I get so sick of the negligence of services and lack of thought given when people are making decisions about mentally ill people, particularly as there are only a handful of us who seem to know what is intended for ‘our’ future.


Regards



Mandy Lawrence

Addendum...I forgot to write that if I lose DLA, I will not be able to afford to have an internet access and thus will be even more excluded from life!!!