It’s been announced today that Health Secretary Wes Streeting has greenlit another review into neurodivergent and mental health condition “overdiagnosis”. This new review will look into the rising demand for mental health, ADHD and autism services in England.
Streeting pushing the ADHD “overdiagnosis” narrative again
Announcing the new review, Streeting said:
We must look at this through a strictly clinical lens to get an evidence-based understanding of what we know, what we don’t know, and what these patterns tell us about our mental health system, autism and ADHD services.
That’s the only way we can ensure everyone gets timely access to accurate diagnosis and effective support.
The review will apparently look at how NHS services for neurodivergent people and those with mental health conditions are working and what support people facing waiting lists could be given earlier.
The Department for Health and Social Care told the BBC:
for too long, people with acute needs have faced long waits, had to navigate overstretched services, experienced inequalities in care and felt abandoned when support was needed most.
This might read as caring for people on waiting lists, but under this Labour party it’s much more likely they’re blaming disabled people for the “pressure” on the NHS.
Streeting is already running a review into “overdiagnosis”
Whilst this review doesn’t mention overdiagnosis, it’s safe to assume it will push that agenda. After all, Streeting has previously said that he believes that there is an “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions.
As the Canary previously reported, that review will be chaired by the highly controversial Sir Simon Wessely. He’s the guy responsible for the belief that ME is a psychological condition and much of the PACE trials. Wessely is also part of the reason ME campaigners were denied an inquiry into the treatment of people with ME who are left to die in hospitals. The Canary’s Hannah Sharland reported:
Psychiatrist Simon Wessely started on the JAC in September 2017, and the JAC reappointed him again in 2020. Crucially, the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) decides who would head up inquiries. In other words, Wessely – a instrumental actor in the medical scandal – would get to choose who would oversee an inquiry on it.
It’s hard to see how this current review will genuinely want to support people with neurodivergent and mental health conditions, when it runs alongside a review which is seemingly aiming to prove those conditions are overdiagnosed.
ADHD is in fact underdiagnosed, but that doesn’t help Labour
As ADHD UK pointed out, a recent study of GP reports found that just 0.32% of patients have an ADHD diagnosis. This covers just 10% of the number of people who actually have ADHD. The organisation also said another study showed the average wait for diagnosis in England is eight years.
ADHD UK said:
The idea that you can achieve overdiagnosis with an average wait of nearly a decade is just preposterous.
While the organisation said the targets posed by the review were “laudable”, it warned against doing this at the expense of those who need benefits:
The issues and challenges that ADHD can bring are finally being recognised, and our potentially naive hope is that this review will progress the recognition of ADHD.
However, we are very worried about the government’s failure to bring a political solution to the rising cost of welfare, means they’re instead looking to run roughshod over decades of medical progress and recognition
Clear that this review is another attempt to take away benefits
It’s interesting that Streeting is positioning this as a review that will support NHS services and disabled people needing support. Again, it bears repeating – this is the same politician who previously said in March that these conditions were “overdiagnosed” and that “there’s too many people being written off”.
Streeting was, however, speaking about the conditions in terms of benefits claimants, as at the time, he was a huge supporter of the government’s proposed welfare cuts. The planned personal independence payment (PIP) change meant that you had to score 4 points on one daily living activity. Just that on its own made it harder for those with neurodivergent and mental health conditions to claim benefits.
This is because a lot of claimants with say, ADHD or depression, would not have met the criteria to score more than 4 points in one activity. For instance, someone with either of those conditions may be able to prepare a meal without assistance, but they may need prompting to remember to do so. That would only score them two points.
Labour cannot be trusted to actually want to help disabled people
The DHSC denies that these reviews are in any way connected to the Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) continuing attempts to cut benefits for disabled people. However, if Streeting’s previous remarks are anything to go by, any potential outcomes from this review would certainly give the DWP even more leverage to stigmatise people who receive benefits.
Whilst Labour are on a crusade to demonise disabled people, especially those with mental health and neurodivergent conditions, we cannot trust that any review claiming to support disabled people will not be used against us.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.