A recent report from the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health reveals that almost every state in the nation is falling short in addressing the mental health needs of new and expecting mothers. According to the report, only four states — California, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington — have managed to exceed a C+ rating. “The U.S. is failing mothers – only scoring a D+ grade…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
In this episode of New Politics, we explore the eternal issue of domestic violence in Australia, exploring the recent headlines and government actions – or lack thereof – that have fueled both media coverage and public discourse. We begin with the No More rally in Canberra, where domestic violence against women and children took centre stage, highlighting the slow governmental response despite numerous reports and increasing public pressure. It’s a critical issue that affects over half of the population and it’s a disaster that the political system doesn’t seem to want to implement the solutions, even though they’ve been available for years.
We also look at the political dynamics at play, particularly focusing on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s involvement at the No More rally – should he have been there? Or not been there? Albanese didn’t seem to read the room very well – or the crowd – and the substantial political fallout could have been avoided if he avoided the centre stage. But he would have been criticised anyway, so what should a Prime Minister? As always, the answer is: “just do the right thing”. Implementing the best policies to reduce domestic violence would have avoided the need for a rally in the first place.
Despite the announcement of $925 million to aid victims and new bans intended to protect against digital abuses, we question the effectiveness of funding without societal and cultural changes to address the root causes of domestic violence.
We then look at the role of the media in shaping public perception and the political narrative and scrutinise how various media outlets negatively reported on the rally and the government’s actions, examining the impact of sensationalism and political bias on the actual issues at hand.
We also look at mental health, as highlighted by former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s public discussion of his struggles while he was in office and a broader debate on the adequacy of government action and funding for mental health services. Should we feel any sympathy for Morrison’s revelations? His actions in office included attacking asylum seekers, the disastrous Robodebt scheme, cutbacks to mental health services, especially for young adults. Maybe not. Join us as we navigate these political and social issues, seeking clarity on what has been done, what could be done better, and the ongoing impact of political and media narratives on real-world problems.
Song listing:
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The post Why is ending domestic violence so difficult? It’s a question men still can’t answer appeared first on New Politics.
This post was originally published on New Politics.
Readers on the harm caused to those who remain incarcerated despite the abolition of IPP sentences in 2012
I am heartened by two pieces on indeterminate sentences that you published last week (Tommy Nicol was kind and friendly – a beloved brother. Why did he die in prison on a ‘99-year’ sentence?, 24 April; Editorial, 26 April). The suicide of Tommy Nicol starkly highlights how unjust imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences always were and remain (although abolished for new cases 12 years ago). As a former prison chaplain and doctoral researcher into pastoral care for those serving IPP sentences, I witnessed firsthand their impact on the mental wellbeing of those who were, in many cases, life-wounded souls themselves.
Thanks to the Guardian and campaign groups such as the United Group for Reform of IPP, I am hoping that this judicial scandal can achieve the same traction in the public consciousness that the Post Office scandal has. While the Commons justice committee report into IPP sentences in 2022 strongly recommended resentencing those still in custody, MPs on both sides of the house lack the moral courage to take this humane step to right a blatant injustice. Some time ago, as a Labour party member, I wrote to Keir Starmer seeking clarification on his position regarding the IPP scandal. Disappointingly, but unsurprisingly, my epistle was met with silence.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
A survey published this week by the Anti-Palestinian Racism Research Group showcases how anti-Palestinian racism amid Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza has affected the mental health of Palestinian Americans and their allies. The organization, which describes itself as consisting of “researchers, physicians, and psychologists who are committed to empirically studying the impact of anti…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Husain Ali Matar was an 18-year-old Bahraini citizen when he was arrested for the final time on 30 October 2022 without a warrant. He was previously arrested on 28 June 2020 when he was a 16-year-old minor student in his second year of middle school and was sentenced to three years in prison following an unfair trial. He was then released on 6 May 2022 under alternative sanctions. During both detentions, he was subjected to physical and psychological torture, enforced disappearance, communication cutoffs, forced confessions, unfair trials, deprivation of prayer, blackmail, and medical neglect. On 20 June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted an opinion concerning six Bahraini students, including Husain, who deemed their detention as arbitrary. The Working Group called for the immediate and urgent release of all six prisoners and for an impartial investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable. He was sentenced to three years in prison, half of which he served before being released on 15 April 2024 under alternative sanctions issued on 9 April 2024, which included 210 convicts.
On the evening of 29 October 2022, Husain’s father was summoned to the Khamees Police Station. When he went to the station on the morning of 30 October, he was detained. The police officers demanded that the father hand over Husain, threatening to hold him hostage otherwise. Consequently, Husain surrendered himself on the evening of the same day, 30 November 2022. He was accused of participating in burning part of a tent that was serving as a center for a candidate in the parliamentary elections on 29 October 2022. Husain was interrogated at the police station for three days without a lawyer present and was prevented from sleeping and praying. Plainclothes officers beat him, gave him only one meal during the day, and did not allow him to use the toilet when needed. As a result of the beatings he endured, he is now experiencing severe vision weakness. He then forcibly disappeared, and his family was cut off from any news about him. Three weeks after his arrest, Husain managed to call his family for the first time since his arrest, informing them that he was in the isolation building of the new Dry Dock Prison, designed for convicts under the age of 21. On 5 November 2022, he was brought before the Public Prosecution Office (PPO), which accused him of participating in burning part of the parliamentary election candidate’s tent.
Husain was arbitrarily arrested for the penultimate time on 28 June 2020, when he was a 16-year-old Bahraini minor student. He was subjected to torture, deprivation of communication, isolation, medical neglect, and ill-treatment, and was sentenced to three years in prison in an unfair trial. On 29 April 2022, the Bahraini government decided to release Husain among a group of 69 prisoners under alternative sanctions, most of whom were criminals, with few political prisoners. On 6 May 2022, Husain was released before being re-arrested on 30 October 2022, just less than six months later.
Since his last release on 6 May 2022 under alternative sanctions and up until his final arrest, Husain had been pursued in the streets by security forces and shot at, which led to constant concern for his life by his family. While implementing his alternative sanctions by working in social service, he faced numerous harassment by the responsible personnel. He was subjected to insults, and his social service locations were changed without prior notice, resulting in his absence being recorded. Although he also completed his work according to his old schedule, he was surprised to find his absence recorded for days when he was working, and violations were registered against him.
Husain was not brought promptly before a judge within 48 hours of his arrest, did not have adequate time and facilities to prepare for his trial, was not given any opportunity to present evidence and challenge evidence presented against him, and was not allowed to speak during his trial. On 15 January 2023, the First High Criminal Court sentenced Husain to 3 years in prison with a 3,000 Dinars fine for the destruction of the electoral tent through arson. On 12 May 2023, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict and rejected Husain’s appeal. On 23 October 2023, the Cassation Court in turn rejected Husain’s appeal and upheld the judgment.
On 20 June 2023, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted an opinion concerning six Bahraini students, including Husain, who deemed their detention as arbitrary. The Working Group called for the immediate and urgent release of all six prisoners and for an impartial investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable.
In January 2024, a year and two months after his final arrest, Husain’s parents were allowed to visit him for the first and only time since his arrest.
Husain had been isolated in a cell with Ali Isa Jasim since their transfer to the new Dry Dock Prison until the issuance of the alternative sanctions decree on 9 April 2024. They endured severe psychological pressure, systematic harassment, and deprivation of the most basic rights, including clothing, healthy meals, and education. On 3 March 2024, Husain’s mother indicated in an audio recording that her son had gone on a hunger strike along with his cellmate, Ali Isa Jasim, due to their isolation away from all other prisoners, and in solidarity with a colleague who was transferred to a ward containing foreign prisoners. On 5 March 2024, Husain’s cellmate, Ali, conveyed in an audio recording from the isolation cell, complaining about their deteriorating health condition after a hunger strike lasting more than 7 days and a significant drop in blood sugar levels. They have sent several letters to the prison administration and various officers. Consequently, Husain and his cellmate received repeated promises that they would be placed with other prisoners, yet to no avail.
On 9 April 2024, the General Directorate for the Implementation of Alternative Judgements and Sanctions and the PPO decided to replace the sentences of 210 convicts in Bahraini prisons with alternative sanctions. They also decided to release 47 convicts under the open prisons program. Husain was among the prisoners whose names were included in the alternative sanctions decree. On the same day, Husain was transferred from Jau Prison to the Roundabout 17 Police Station in preparation for his release. However, he was forced to remain at the police station due to another case against him. In detail, Husain received a new offer to work as an informant in exchange for completing his release procedures; however, he refused the offer. Despite his name being on the list of those to be released, authorities arbitrarily kept him in prison. When his family inquired about him outside the station, awaiting his release, the police informed them that there was another sentence issued against him in absentia for 3 years in prison, even though the decision issued by the General Directorate for the Implementation of Alternative Judgements and Sanctions and the PPO stated that the remaining period of imprisonment and fines imposed on all mentioned prisoners should be dropped.
On 15 April 2024, Husain was presented to the PPO, which ordered his release. On the same day, he was released without any further details or clarification provided.
Husain’s arbitrary arrests, including his penultimate one when he was a minor, torture, enforced disappearance, communication cutoffs, deprivation of prayer, denial of access to legal counsel during interrogations, restraints on his rights to education, denial of fair trial rights, medical neglect, blackmail, and isolation represent clear violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Bahrain is a party. The Bahraini authorities also violated the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules.
Thus, ADHRB calls on the Government of Bahrain to investigate the allegations of arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearance, communication cutoffs, deprivation of prayer, denial of access to legal counsel during interrogations, restrictions on his rights to education, medical neglect, blackmail, and isolation to hold perpetrators accountable. In addition, ADHRB urges the Bahraini government to end the isolation of all political prisoners, holding the government responsible for the deterioration of the psychological conditions of isolated detainees. While ADHRB welcomes the recent release of a large number of political prisoners, it considers this belated step insufficient if it is conditional. ADHRB considers this step insufficient unless investigations into the violations suffered by these released individuals are conducted, compensation is provided, perpetrators are held accountable, and political arrests and ongoing prison violations cease.
The post Profile in Persecution: Husain Ali Matar appeared first on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.
This post was originally published on Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain.
Over the past thirty years, LEGO has been used as a therapeutic tool for both children and adults. It seems that many people benefit from this kind of intervention, but how exactly does LEGO help adults heal from trauma?
Across numerous social media sites, huge communities of adult Fans of LEGO exist. One group alone which I’m a member of, boasts over 100k members internationally. Adults come together virtually to enjoy and benefit from both building LEGO, and the sense of community.
Whilst many of the sets are designed for children, some of the newer sets, such as the McLaren & Ayrton Senna set, were created with adults in mind. With an 18+ label, most of them are more complex or designed as display pieces – rather than those children can play with.
Trauma is an event or series of events which is distressing and overwhelms our nervous systems ability to cope. In England, one in three adults have experienced one or more traumatic events.
People with trauma will use grounding techniques to help them when something triggers them. Specifically, it allows a person to interrupt their nervous system’s response and start feeling safe and present again, rather than trapped in a traumatic memory.
There are many versions of very similar grounding techniques. Notably, the majority of these involve a person trying to reconnect with the present moment, rather than something traumatic from the past. Additionally, many of them aim to engage different senses, such as physical touch along with forcing the brain to focus on something else as a distraction. Of course, LEGO ticks all of these boxes.
Whilst other creative activities tick one or two of these boxes, it seems LEGO is on another level. Using both hands to build and at the same time focusing on making sense of the instructions, is an incredibly grounding combination.
There are many reports online of people using LEGO to get through various traumatic events. From US Veterans overcoming PTSD, addiction and reducing anxiety, to helping someone through the loss of two children. LEGO has helped many people survive difficult times in their lives.
Sofie Furio is a military veteran who was diagnosed with PTSD after spending 24 years in the US Air Force. She told me:
I found that by building LEGO, I am reprogramming my brain to work through distractions and frustration that are often triggered as a result of trauma. Building LEGO is something that helps me ground myself. I work on a LEGO set and I practise my breathing. PTSD made me isolate, disconnect and avoid. But LEGO has become the link to interact and regain a meaningful connection with others.
To put it simply, nervous system regulation means our ability to move through life’s stresses without getting overwhelmed.
During periods of stress, our fight or flight response is activated. A regulated nervous system will quickly return to normal once the threat is over. For people with a history of trauma, this is a much harder task. Trauma creates changes in the brain meaning that sometimes the fight or flight response becomes the default setting.
This can lead to overstimulation and finding it difficult to calm down. Or, on the other hand they may become disconnected and depressed or even alternate between the two states.
In recent years there has been a lot of hype on social media sites such as TikTok surrounding nervous system regulation. But have we been overlooking such a simple tool like LEGO?
Unlike many meditation techniques, LEGO allows a form of mindfulness that does not involve sitting completely still. For some people like Hayden, who experienced a traumatic event as an adult, this makes it easier.
LEGO gets me to slow down. I really struggle to sit still and be present. But when I’m building LEGO it’s like nothing else exists. I haven’t managed to find that anywhere else.
A.J, who also has PTSD, shared similar experiences:
Lego allows me to switch my mind off and gives me a break. Sometimes I use it to help me distract myself. If my brain is too full to think I will just follow the instructions of a set. Other times I feel more creative and will just build and see what comes from it. Either way it helps me de-stress and have some fun.
Play is often how children start to make sense of the world around them. However, often when individuals have experienced trauma at a young age, they miss out on ‘normal’ things such as play.
I spoke to Rose, who is healing from multiple traumas and is learning to manage her PTSD symptoms. She told me:
Childhood trauma casts a dark shadow over the entirety of your childhood… it’s difficult to recall anything that stirs a ‘happy thought’. But LEGO gently and safely unearths those memories that aren’t filled with terror and gives you the power to unlock your inner child.
Having fun and even playing, enables so many of us to actually feel alive – rather than just keeping our heads above water.
I spoke to Dr Jay Watts – Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist:
I am a huge fan of LEGO for adults who have been traumatised in childhood, including myself!
When we’ve been traumatised, we often miss out on opportunities to play and create safely. These experiences leave many scars, one of which is the struggle to find joy in creativity. We develop our joy in play early in life, partly by seeing it mirrored in others.
Without that reflection, it’s like a drought to the growth of the soul; it limits our joy in life. We need to be able to play because it’s part of the life force—the antidote to the greying stillness, deadness, and exhaustion that many of us can feel.’
Psychology has begun to recognise that play is as important to healing from trauma as processing trauma memories and establishing good-enough relationships. We’re reawakening an inner child that’s been too scared, too damaged, or too paralyzed to move, and freeing them historically helps free us a little in the now.
Ultimately, Dr Watts concluded:
Will LEGO heal our trauma? Well, no, of course not entirely. But LEGO allows us both to let our imaginations run riot and to engage in a precision that demands qualities akin to mindfulness.
Whilst many different creative activities all seem to have some therapeutic benefits – LEGO seems to provide more than most. And if nothing else, when everything feels chaotic and you can’t get your thoughts in order. You can always get your LEGO in order. Personally, it makes me feel in control. No matter what is going on.
As Dr Watts highlighted however:
Were it only less expensive, I would consider it a gift to the world!
Still, whether you are following an instruction booklet or creating something of your own, you cannot beat the feeling of putting the last piece into place. No matter how old you are, the sense of achievement rivals that of flat pack furniture. But LEGO is way more fun and usually, better to look at. And if it helps people with their trauma, all the better.
LEGO is often a metaphor for life. Eventually all the pieces will fit together. No matter how many are currently scattered all over the floor.
Featured image supplied
By HG
This post was originally published on Canary.
Psychedelic drugs have been illegal for 50 years, but they’re trickling back into the mainstream because they show promise in helping treat post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health challenges.
We begin the hour with reporter Jonathan A. Davis visiting Psychedelic Science 2023, the largest-ever conference on psychedelic drugs. It’s put on by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, an organization dedicated to legalizing MDMA (also known as ecstasy or molly) and other psychedelic drugs. Research shows that MDMA-assisted therapy can help treat depression and PTSD, and it’s moving toward approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Psychedelics were studied in the 1950s and ’60s as mental health treatments, but the war on drugs put a stop to research. Now, these drugs are gaining bipartisan support from politicians looking for solutions to the mental health crisis among veterans.
Then Reveal’s Michael I Schiller visits a group of veterans who are not waiting for psychedelic-assisted therapy to be approved by the federal government. They’ve joined a church founded by an Iraq War veteran who uses psychedelics as religious sacraments. Schiller accompanies them on a retreat in rural Texas, where they share the depths of their post-traumatic stress and the relief they’ve felt after psychedelic treatments. He also explores the risks involved in taking these drugs.
We close with an intimate audio diary from a woman in Oakland, California, who’s going through therapy with the one psychedelic drug that can be legally prescribed currently in the U.S.: ketamine. Ketamine started out as an anesthetic, but researchers found it can help with treatment-resistant depression when used in tandem with talk therapy. Ketamine can be dangerous if abused, but it also has helped people find relief from mental health issues. This story was produced by Davis.
This is an update of an episode that originally aired in October 2023.
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This post was originally published on Reveal.
Amid ongoing emergencies, including a would-be autocrat on his way to possibly regaining the American presidency and Israel’s war on Gaza (not to mention the flare-ups of global climate change), the U.S. has slipped quietly toward an assault on civil liberties as an answer to plummeting mental health. From coast to coast, state lawmakers of both parties are reaching for coercive treatment and…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
A healthy lifestyle is essential for your daily routine. It allows you to stay active and educated about your general health, in addition to adopting healthy behaviours, frequent health exam concerns, and spotting irregularities in your body at an early stage by interacting with your health care provider or doctor frequently.
It is now simpler to diagnose and cure several illnesses due to medical developments. These breakthroughs provide you with a variety of therapy alternatives.
“Health is the thing that makes you feel like this is the best time of year” Franklin P. Adams
Keeping an eye on your health screenings and examinations is essential for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Here is a brief description that you may find below:
Through customised medical care, everyone in the modern era will always receive the most remarkable advice and treatments to preserve their well-being. Screenings and assessments are essential developments:
Based on the diagnosis, your physician and healthcare adviser will decide what additional medication and therapies to recommend. Medical practitioners can customise their advice based on your family history, age, gender, and lifestyle choices. Your doctor can help you discover diseases you may need to be aware of using these checks.
People’s health suffered greatly in ancient times due to a lack of creativity and technology. They commonly perished as a result of ailments for which they did not know the cause or how to recuperate. You must prioritise your health and engage in regular preventative care.
Moreover, regular health screenings allow you to make essential lifestyle changes, such as eating a nutritious diet rich in fruits and vegetables, quitting smoking, and increasing physical activity. You may dramatically minimise your chance of developing chronic diseases and ensure a healthy future by taking preventative actions.
Detecting disorders in your body, even if you seem healthy on the outside, is critical. For example, your body’s internal working can be unpredictable, and problems with veins can have a substantial influence on your general health and biological processes:
Moreover, regular examinations and scans help for the early diagnosis of significant illnesses or diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension or high blood pressure, hypotension, and heart disease.
Additionally, diagnostic tests such as X-rays, ECGs, and EEGs are helpful in the identification of abnormalities and the improvement of treatment outcomes, eventually improving overall health.
As you know, excellent physical and mental health play an essential part in everyday life. Regular checks will allow you to rest and have peace of mind. These routine scans and examinations allow you to rest knowing that you have a thorough understanding of your health:
For example, if you have any food allergies, you may examine and treat them as soon as possible, after which you can actively manage your health and wellbeing by modifying your lifestyle.
Additionally, while discussing peace of mind, here’s another device to help you relieve tension and reduce anxiety using disposable vapes. If you want to stop smoking, you can discover these portable devices from any online vape shop.
With the easy-to-use setup and pre-filled e-juice tank of Elux Legend 3500 Puffs UK, you can enjoy this disposable vape for a long time. You can also relish various flavours in vaping devices.
Nowadays, it is possible to find diseases – which is beneficial to humans – and assist you in developing healthy habits. Remember to take care of your health by employing various approaches.
Featured image and additional images via KHNSA UK
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
As a kid, Wesley Jackson Wade should have been set up to succeed. His father was a novelist and corporate sales director and his mother was a special education teacher. But Wade said he struggled through school even though he was an exceptional writer and communicator. He played the class clown when he wasn’t feeling challenged. He got in trouble for talking back to teachers. And, the now 40-year…
Fresh from casually dancing and singing with the Bee Gees offstage at the Whitehouse during Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s State visit to the US (true story!), Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt hit the stage at the National Press Club in Canberra to give us all a sobering message about body image.
“I have never met anyone who’s learned to embrace their body and regretted the decision to do so,” she told the packed room in a televised Women in Media address.
Moving onto a powerful lesson about the importance not judging the health of someone by looking at their body, Taryn told the audience about her late brother, Jason.
“I want to share a rather personal, painful example of how I know this not to be true. My brother was charismatic, charming and incredibly funny. He had the potential to do so much, and he always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.
“When he lived in Queensland, he was randomly approached by one of the team from the movie The Thin Red Line and was asked to be Sean Penn’s movie double, which of course he jumped at the chance. I don’t want to make it about appearance, but the girls did think Jason was a good looker!
“Now, if I put Jason here, and then a man in a larger body next to him, and ask 100 people who they thought was healthier out of the two men, all 100 people would have said Jason. And yet, Jason was a heroin addict, who died from his addiction, on a park bench in Sydney across from Central Station.”
She reiterated: “You just don’t know what’s going on in someone’s life, and you most definitely can’t judge someone’s health by their appearance.”
Moving on, Taryn recalled the incident 10 years ago in which she “…shared a before-and-after image of my body that sent the internet into a spin and lit the spark behind what would become my career and sole focus for the next decade.”
In that time Taryn believes we’ve made progress on body image – but still have a long way to go. She says while some commentators believe the topic is passé, nothing could be further from the truth.
“Body image issues among young people are the worst they’ve ever been. Since the start of the pandemic, rates of body image distress and eating disorders in young people have doubled.
“A 2013 Deloitte Access Economics study, found that the total socioeconomic cost of eating disorders was $69.7 billion annually, not to mention the immeasurable personal costs,” she told the Press Club audience.
Australian of the Year, Taryn Brumfitt, addresses the National Press Club. Photo: Hilary Wardhaugh
Taryn has been working to get evidence-based resources on body image to thousands of young people across the country.
However, she says one of the most important places children receive messages is at home: “I’m absolutely convinced that if we do not do the work as individuals and professionals to change our own internalised beliefs and behaviours around bodies, it will be another decade before we see any meaningful, lasting change.
“If you’re a parent, role model or caregiver to a young person – the most powerful thing you can do is to stop saying anything negative about your body or appearance—or anyone else’s—in front of your kids,” she said.
In her typical authentic style, Taryn declared that just like the rest of us, she’s had moments when “the wheels have fallen off.” But in the end, these experiences have driven her forward.
“In my teens my family was rocked by the suicide of my uncle, I’m still devastated every day to have lost my brother Jason when he was just 27 years old, and I was left absolutely broken when my 19-year marriage ended several years ago.
“I’ve had the full human experience, some real highs and lows, but out of all of the life-changing moments, there’s been nothing more profound than when I decided to stop hating my body, and learned how to appreciate and embrace it instead,” she said.
(Editor’s note: Hear! Hear!)
At one stage, Taryn said she despaired at her supposedly “broken” post-children body. And even considered plastic surgery. But slowly it dawned on her that this would send the wrong message to her young daughter, Mikaela.
“I had this thought: ‘How am I going to teach my daughter to embrace her body if I change mine?’ So, I cancelled the scheduled surgery.”
Explaining this revelation further, Taryn said: “I realised that I didn’t want to move my body to punish it, I wanted to move it for the pleasure of being alive. I learnt that I wanted to nourish my body with foods that fuel me and give me energy.”
Circling back to the moment when she shared the non-traditional “after” photo of her larger body online – and how it sent the internet and media into an international frenzy – Taryn told the Press Club audience thousands of people then wrote to her about their own body image despair.
“It was at that moment that I fully understood the scale of this issue,” she said.
Turning to statistics, Taryn painted a sobering picture of the way Australians view their bodies: “Ninety one percent of women want a different body to the one they have. For our youth – we are experiencing a paediatric health emergency.
“Seventy seven percent of Australian adolescents experience body image distress, which is actually higher than the global average. Rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, eating disorders and steroid use related to body dissatisfaction are soaring.
“We know that young people with poor body image are 24 times more likely to develop depression and anxiety. One in ten adolescent boys and one in three girls meet the criteria for eating disorders. And the issues are presenting at younger and younger ages. We now have the data that shows that 37 percent of three-year-olds want a different body to the one they have.
“And there is elevated risk for body image concerns, among trans, non-binary, gender diverse, and sexual minority young people,” she said.
Taryn urged the audience not to comment on the bodies of others – for any reason: “If we normalise this type of judgement, our young ones will go on to think that their bodies should be subject to public scrutiny. It’s harmful, unhelpful and quite simply, none of our business!”
Her last tip was to stop blaming social media for body image issues, and harness it for good instead.
“Let’s encourage a more empowered approach to social media, for us and our kids. Just like in real life, let’s be discerning about who you let in the door, use your power to support the things that help us feel good, and unfollow the things that don’t.”
As a joking aside, Taryn urged us all to insist on more cat and dog videos in our social media feeds (as opposed to ogling at and comparing ourselves to people’s bodies).
When it comes to the media, Taryn suggested we “…show images of people that are as diverse in appearance as we see in the world…And let’s stop talking about weight and ‘obesity’ and start talking about health.”
“Life is fleeting. Don’t waste it being at war with your body, and please don’t set the young ones in your life up for a lifetime of the same,” she concluded.
Find out more about Taryn’s work with body image research and advocacy group The Embrace Collective here. Watch the Embrace films on Netflix.
Picture at top: Australian of the Year, Taryn Brumfitt, addresses the National Press Club. Photo: Hilary Wardhaugh
The post “You can’t judge someone’s health by their appearance” appeared first on BroadAgenda.
This post was originally published on BroadAgenda.
A new study from Pew Charitable Trusts shows that four U.S. cities that saw low rent growth also saw decreases in homelessness. In California, government officials have blamed the Ninth Circuit decision in Martin v. Boise, which ruled that cities cannot enforce anti-camping bans if they don’t have sufficient shelter beds, for undermining efforts to end homelessness. As an internal medicine…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Psychedelic drugs have been illegal for 50 years, but they’re trickling back into the mainstream because they show promise in helping treat post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health challenges.
We begin the hour with reporter Jonathan A. Davis visiting Psychedelic Science 2023, the largest-ever conference on psychedelic drugs. It’s put on by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, an organization dedicated to legalizing MDMA (also known as ecstasy or molly) and other psychedelic drugs. Research shows that MDMA-assisted therapy can help treat depression and PTSD, and it’s moving toward approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Psychedelics were studied in the 1950s and ’60s as mental health treatments, but the war on drugs put a stop to research. Now, these drugs are gaining bipartisan support from politicians looking for solutions to the mental health crisis among veterans.
Then Reveal’s Michael I Schiller visits a group of veterans who are not waiting for psychedelic-assisted therapy to be approved by the federal government. They’ve joined a church founded by an Iraq War veteran who uses psychedelics as religious sacraments. Schiller accompanies them on a retreat in rural Texas, where they share the depths of their post-traumatic stress and the relief they’ve felt after psychedelic treatments. He also explores the risks involved in taking these drugs.
We close with an intimate audio diary from a woman in Oakland, California, who’s going through therapy with the one psychedelic drug that can be legally prescribed currently in the U.S.: ketamine. Ketamine started out as an anesthetic, but researchers found it can help with treatment-resistant depression when used in tandem with talk therapy. Ketamine can be dangerous if abused, but it also has helped people find relief from mental health issues. This story was produced by Davis.
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This post was originally published on Reveal.
Summary of Part I
In Part I of this 2-part article, I began by listing the typical superstitious behavior college students engage in before taking a test. I identified the conditions of superstition, what superstition is and then added the range of its scope. My piece is about socially shared and personal superstitions rather than about paranormal or spiritual beliefs. From there I probed the demography of superstition including occupations, social class and gender. Next, I talked about the importance of Pavlov’s theory of associations as well of Skinner’s consequential reinforcement in the acquiring of superstitions. I analyzed the attachment to places and objects and the theory of contagion that underlines both. Lastly, I explained the evolutionary psychological reasons why creationism has more appeal for people than Darwinian natural section. As I mentioned in Part I this article is based on 2 books, The Science of Superstition by Bruce M. Hood and Believing in Magic by Stewart Vyse.
Growing Up Superstitious
Wishing and reality
Until Piaget’s concrete operational stage children are unclear what is the relationship between their mind and reality. Young children are not sure about the relationship between mental thoughts and actions. They think that wishing can cause things to actually happen. For example, Hood reports on children making wishes with birthday cakes with candles or when English schoolchildren bring in mascots to examinations to set up at the front of their desks. It is only after the age of seven that mind and reality are mostly differentiated.
How do children understand solid and liquid objects
Hood points out that by their first birthday very young children have solid objects pretty much figured out, but they are still not sure about non-solid objects like liquid, sand and jello. They know that solid objects cannot float in thin air and they stare in amazement if shown a conjurer’s illusion to create this effect. Only after some years at school can children start to understand that while some things are improbable, they are not necessarily impossible. Skepticism is not learned until Piaget’s formal operations stage of thinking which begins, if it begins at all, in high school.
Child development beyond Piaget
Here are some of the original findings from Piaget about early childhood.
Hood points out that magic trick experiments have revolutionized the way we interrogate babies about what they know. In other words, magicians trained in perceptual illusions will show the baby these magic tricks. The psychologists will judge their perceptual stage of development by whether or not children are surprised by magical tricks. According to these new techniques, some of Piaget’s research has become dated. Hood says that there are rules for objective knowledge that must be built on from birth.
Otherwise, the objects are living things.
Ontological fusion
Babies must first decide if something is an object, a living thing or a living thing that possesses a mind. When you play the game of twenty questions the first question starts with “is it an animal, mineral or vegetable?”. This narrows the focus. Children generate naïve theories that explain the physical world, the living world and eventually the psychological world of other people. This is tricky because sometimes objects do not fall straight down; sometimes living things do not move; and sometimes moving things are not alive (toys powered by batteries). Slinkies are another example of a toy that seems to come to life. Children might think that a burning chair feels pain or that a bicycle aches after being kicked. Children may believe they can affect reality by thinking. This is the basis of psychokinesis.
In part, this ontological fusion of the physical and biological worlds exists in order to explain the causes of events. Ontological fusion occurs if a child thinks a toy (physical property) can come alive at night (biological property) and has intentions (psychological property). All these would represent a violation of the natural order.
This is understandable since the causes and mechanisms they are trying to reason about are invisible. This invisibility is a foundation stone for superstitious thinking.
Transition objects as examples of animism and anthropomorphism
Hood informs us that one half to three quarters of all children form an emotional bond to a specific soft toy or blanket during their second year of life. They need them for reassurance when they are frightened or lonely. These objects enable the infant to make the transitions from sleeping with their mother to sleeping alone. Interestingly, transitional objects are more common in Western cultures but rare in Japan where the children sleep with their mothers well into late childhood.
What is Essentialism?
What is essentialism and what is its opposite? According to Susan Gelman, in her book The Essential Child, essential entities are discovered while non-essential entities are invented. Essential categories are intrinsic. Non-essential entities are a product of external forces. A sign of something considered to be essential is that it appears to be unalterable, whereas something non-essential can easily be changed. Whatever is considered as essential, it remains stable across transformation. The non-essential changes across transformations. What is essential usually occurs below the surface while what is non-essential occurs on the surface of things. The traits of the essential are mutually exclusive while the non-essential have traits which are overlapping. Essential characteristics have sharp boundaries, while non-essential phenomenon have boundaries which bleed into each other. A concrete example of this is the relationship between nature and nurture. It used to be thought that nature was unchanging essential whereas nurture was non-essential and changeable. In philosophy Plato thought that otherworldly, eternal forms were essences while the changing natural and social worlds were inessential appearances.
In perfume, essences are the concentrated reduced quantity of a fragrant substance after all the impurities have been removed. Special things are considered unique by virtue of something deep and irreplaceable. Apple seeds grown in flowerpots become apple trees. It appears there is something inside that cannot be changed. The idea that you can absorb someone’s essence is a recurrent theme in the explanations of cannibalism. Youth, energy, beauty, temperament, strength and even sexual preferences are essential qualities that we attribute to others. However, the more essential a quality is deemed to be, the greater the potential for contamination. The superstitious belief is that we can absorb the good essences of others. If the victim was young the muscular parts were given to the village boys to eat so they could absorb his power and valor.
In the philosophy of vitalism, vitalism is a life force, something that is in living animals but not in dead ones. Vitalists claim that life does not obey the known laws of physics and chemistry. When you kill a large animal close up, you can experience a sense that something leaves the body. The concept of enduring life energy is not entirely wrong. The living body does generate energy in that it converts energy from one source to another. That’s what a metabolism is. Psychological essentialism is one of the main foundations of the universal supernatural belief that there is something more to reality. Both good and evil are perceived to be tangible essences that can be transmitted through items of clothing and contaminates them for better or for worse.
Children’s essentialism
Children assume the living world is permeated by invisible life forces and patterns that define which of the three ontological categories they belong. They assume there are essences that define what a living thing is. Children’s intuitive biology sows the seeds of its supernaturalism. It is not until age six or seven that children begin to understand what it is to be alive.
Adult essentialism
For many adults, essential, vital and connected properties operate in the world that go beyond what is scientifically proven. Hood gives us an example of kidney donation, in which the person felt they shared a link with someone because part of her was inside them. Around one in three transplant patients believe they inherit the psychological properties of the donor. The supernatural belief is that the psychological aspects of an individual are stored in organ tissue and can be transferred to the host recipient. Hood points out that:
While biological contamination through viruses and microbial infections is a real mode of transference between individuals, we also believe that other non-physical properties such as vitality, morality and even identity can similarly be transferred as if they were physical entities (194). Personal possessions, items of clothing and former dwellings of significant others will take on something of the previous owner. (195) …psychological contamination emerges naturally out of psychological essentialism (247).
The Social Mind
Long before the individual mind becomes reflective of their own psychology, the individual must first realize that others have minds which give meaning and have intentions as well. Our social nature depends on our ability to be mind-readers. Most of our thoughts are about other people. In becoming sociable mind-readers, children start to think about how minds are separate from bodies. This kind of thinking prepares the ground for some very strong supernatural belief about the body, mind and soul. Whether we are reflecting on our own mind or inferring what’s going on in the mind of others, we are treating minds as separate from bodies. Remember that we can see how our bodies change and age when we look in the mirror. But we cannot step outside our minds and see how they age in a mirror. How can a physical thing like the brain create the mental world we inhabit? Furthermore, we have no natural explanation of how something that has no physical dimensions (the mind) can produce changes in the physical world through our thoughts and actions. If minds are not hinged to the physical brain then mind is not subject to the same destiny as our physical bodies.
Social origins of ghosts
In adulthood we need to figure out our friends from our foes. We increasingly learn the subtleties of social interaction. We readily remember every occurrence when we sensed this discomfort that proved justified, but we conveniently forget every time when we were wrong (confirmation bias) and read too much into the situation. This is amplified by our increasing global social connectedness to others and our attention to their eyes. The emotional arousal we experience when we are being stared at simply reinforces the sense that we can detect another’s gaze even when we can’t see them.
Hood asks us if you haven’t you ever felt the pang of guilt when you have done something wrong and wondered whether someone saw you doing it? Sometimes the thought of someone watching us from beyond the grave is enough to make us behave ourselves. In fact, the psychologist Jesse Bering thinks that belief in ghosts and spirits may have evolved as a mechanism designed to make us behave ourselves when we think we are being watched.
From Being Stared at to Paranoia
Thinking that others are watching you and talking about you is a classic symptom of paranoia. Not surprisingly, supernatural beliefs are a major feature of psychotic disorders of mania and schizophrenia. We can all sense patterns, but psychotic patients are more prone to do so all the time. Superstitious thinking becomes pathological when episodes of paranoia start to dominate and control the individual’s life. They may even attribute such thoughts as coming from some outside source. That is why schizophrenics often think their thoughts are being transmitted or invaded by outside signals. Everything is given significance. Every single thing means something. They vehemently deny Freud’s quip that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”. They believe there is a hidden connection to everything that happens. They see themselves as extended beyond their bodies and connected to an invisible oneness of the universe.
Is Superstition Abnormal?
Hood approaches the relationship between abnormality and superstition questions in two ways:
David Rosenhan and Martin Seligman have proposed a family approach to abnormal behavior. They have named several properties of abnormality. A person’s behavior might not have all seven elements, but if several are present with sufficient severity then the label of abnormal can be applied with some confidence. The elements include:
Let us apply the seven criteria to superstitious behavior.
Based on Rosenhan and Seligman’s criteria, most superstitions are not abnormal.
In most cases, superstitions do not produce suffering. In fact, some cases they produce some psychological benefit. Most superstitions are not maladaptive. An athlete using a lucky charm is not likely to affect his play or his life. Most popular superstitions are socially shared and personal superstitions are benign. They are maladaptive when it wastes time that could have been spent studying or resting. But these are minor issues.
The irrationality of most superstitious behavior is mild compared to the schizophrenic thought disorders. Superstitious behavior is not unpredictable. In fact, superstitious behavior is designed to have more control. Are friends or strangers uncomfortable in the presence of superstitious behavior? Not likely. If anything, a friend’s lucky charm is a source of amusement and teasing. Finally, in most cases, superstitious behavior does not violate moral or idea standards. Some religions hold that superstitious behavior is a form of paganism and an affront to God. But this is not a popular attitude. The violation of ideal standards is also pretty rare. Superstitions rarely interfere with the normal standards of behavior. They maintain love relationships, jobs, families, and as a group they are no more aggressive, depressed or shy than the general public. We do not seek psychological services for the treatment of belief in astrology. Nevertheless, the converse is not true. Some serious mental disorders do include forms of superstition. Let us look at Rosenhan’s and Seligman’s criteria and the results.
Is Abnormal Behavior Superstitious?
Neurotics
Stuart Vyse points out that neurotics have emotionally distressing symptoms and unwelcome psychological states but their behavior is still within the boundaries of social systems. In addition, there are many anxious and fearful people who think superstitions are silly.
Obsessive–compulsive disorder
Remember in Part I when we discussed the difference between a routine and a mindless ritual? The disorder with features most akin to normal superstitions is obsessive, compulsive behavior (OCD). The primary features are obsessions with unwanted, often disturbing, thoughts and impulses that occur repeatedly and are difficult to control. Compulsions are behavioral responses. Mistakes in the superstitious ritual must be repeated again from the beginning. Obsessive-compulsive disorders resemble common superstitions, especially superstitions involving bad luck, avoiding black cats in your path and stepping on cracks on pavement. But is superstition causing obsessive compulsive behavior. The answer is no. The superstitions are there as an attempt to control the obsessions and compulsions. If cognitive therapists like Albert Ellis insisted on making fun of or talking the patient out of the superstitions, that would not make the obsessions and compulsions to go away.
Schizophrenia
Psychosis is characterized by profound disturbances in thought and emotion. People suffer from hallucinations and delusions of grandeur. The schizophrenic imagines their thoughts being controlled by outside forces or that someone is out to get them (delusions of persecution). While superstition is a factor in predicting schizophrenia, superstitions do not cause schizophrenia. They are a product of schizophrenia which is primarily a bio-chemical problem.
On the whole, superstitions are not signs of abnormality. It is more a question of how many superstitions people have rather than whether they have them at all. While some extreme disorders like schizophrenia clearly involve superstitions, many disorders do not. Cognitive psychology points out eight typical thinking errors that can make people unnecessarily miserable but none of these qualify as superstitions.
Dopamine: the brain’s supernatural signaler?
Hood suggests that there may well be a chemical foundation for superstition:
If there is a smoking gun for the biological basis of the superstition it seems to be firmly held by the hand of dopamine. Apophenia represents abnormally excessive activity of the dopamine system that leads individuals to detect more coincidence in the world and can see patterns that the rest of us miss. (238)
If Superstition is not Abnormal, is it Irrational?
According to Hood, beliefs are rational if they draw conclusions which are valid (following formal logic) and sound ( following the rules of informal logic) from the evidence available. But often the true nature of events in many cases is hidden, meaning ones’ beliefs can be based on the best of what is known yet could be false. However, in the case of superstitious thinking or behavior it is based on beliefs which are inconsistent with the available scientific facts.
If a young man bought the lottery ticket purely out of a belief that it directly affected the lottery results, we must label his action irrational. When superstitions interfere with the more reasoned responses to a situation, we must put them in the irrational category. But if it indirectly produces a positive emotional effect that leads to a temporary good mood, a secondary gain can be in the form of entertainment (temporary distraction), it is rational. The ticket was purchased based not on a belief in superstition. The rationality of the superstition rests on the expected utilities of other benefits provided it be inexpensive. When might superstition be rational?
When superstition is irrational:
Conclusion to Whether Superstition is Abnormal and Irrational
The Two Parts of the Brain
Characteristics of the ancestral brain
At the end of my article The Haphazard Conflicted Brain I developed a table which contrasted the ancient brain to the deliberate system of the brain. I used the table to explain why the brain is erratic and why it is impossible to use the deliberative side of the brain all the time. This same table helps us to understand why superstition is part of the ancestral brain. Superstition can be contained but not eliminated. The ancestral part of the brain works fast, automatically and unconsciously. It uses heuristic shortcuts and its knowledge is implicit. It ontologically fuses physical, living and psychological phenomena which has a lot to do with superstitious ideas.
The ancient brain is teleological, anthropomorphic
This ancient brain does not understand how Darwinian natural selection can be creative of new processes because human beings don’t live long enough to actually witness this slow, creative change. Instead, the ancestral brain imagines creative change teleologically as caused by God, just as human design is responsible for carrying out human plans.
This same ancestral brain animates the non-living because in our early history we had no scientific knowledge about the origin of life. The ancestral brain anthropomorphizes inanimate nature and life from a survival point of view. Sadly, human beings are more dangerous to each other than any life form. In an ambiguous and dangerous situation it is safer to imagine that what is rustling in the woods might be a human being rather than the wind. To image that sound might be the wind and be wrong might get you killed. On the other hand, if you guess wrong and it is not a human being there is little cost (it’s only the wind).
Ancestral mind is essentialist
The ancestorial mind is essentialist. It believes beings have an unchanging inner core that makes things what they are. Interactions with other forces, be they rocks, trees, plants, animals, or humans can contaminate essences often times for the worse. This is also an important part of superstition. However, there is hope that we might absorb the good essences of others. The opposite of essences is contextualism, the degree to which animals, plants and humans are products of physical, biological and sociological contexts. Again, a knowledge of human and animal life that is based on Darwinian adaptation to environments is far too late in human history to be part of the ancestral brain.
Ancestral brain accepts René Descartes’ mind-body dualism
Lastly, the epistemological roots of the ancestral brain and superstition is Descartes’ dualistic separation of the mind from the body. This is because experientially our thinking processes seem not to be rooted in anything physical. Most people today still think the mind is independent of the body. Again, this is because the discovery of the brain as the seat of mentality was too late in evolutionary history to be incorporated into the ancestral brain. The heart of superstition is the fact that the deeper causes of events are invisible to us. Without understanding how these invisible processes work, we project beings who are responsible – ghosts, spirits, lucky charms or gods.
The deliberate brain is for the most part the product of science. It works slowly, consciously, methodically and intentionally with explicit knowledge according to a plan. It does not fuse ontological categories, keeping the physical, biological and psychological separate from contamination. It understands chance and coincidence and does not overly interpret events as patterns and meaning when there aren’t any. Epistemologically, most scientists do not accept Descartes’ mind-body dualism. They are either physicalists, claiming the mind is either identical to the body or that the mind is an emergent property of the body.
Here is a summary:
Two Parts of the Brain
Ancient brain:
Deliberative mind
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Most people in the United States claim to value freedom and civil rights for all citizens. Wherever their biases may lie and whatever other limitations they feel should be in place, relatively few would openly admit to believing that any particular group should be locked up when no crime has been committed. Yet, for the same majority, that changes the moment so-called “mental illness” enters the…
On May 19, 2022, police in the small borough of Malvern, Pennsylvania, conducted a wellness check on 47-year-old Korean transgender woman Maddie Hofmann, who was experiencing a mental health crisis. According to the Chester County district attorney, Hofmann allegedly opened the front door with a gun in their right hand. An officer convinced them to drop the firearm, but Hofmann allegedly picked it…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The Tory government failed to attend a meeting of the United Nations (UN) regarding its treatment of chronically ill, deaf, and disabled people. So, those affected have been asking #WheresTom in response to the absence of the minister responsible for their rights. However, unlike their ministers, campaign groups did attend the UNCRPD (UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) meeting in Geneva. They laid out damning evidence showing that somehow, things have gotten worse in the UK for chronically ill, deaf, and disabled people since a previous UN report accused successive Tory governments of human rights abuses.
As the Canary has documented, the UNCRPD is a human rights branch of the UN. It oversees the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The UK has signed up to this conventions. However, in 2016 the UNCRPD assessed how the country was sticking to the rules. It found that successive UK governments had committed “grave” and “systematic” violations of disabled people’s human rights.
Every so often, the UNCRPD monitors countries to see if they are acting in line with the CRPD’s articles or not. The last time the committee looked at the UK was in 2016 – and the report was damning. Then, in August 2017, the UNCRPD followed up on its report; this included its chair accusing the government of creating a “human catastrophe” for disabled people. Yet in 2018 the government effectively whitewashed the UNCRPD report.
Now, the committee is investigating the UK again – but it’s already met with controversy.
Minister for disabled people Tom Pursglove is the person ultimately responsible for chronically ill, deaf, and disabled people’s rights at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). However, as the Canary previously reported, his government refused to attend the UNCRPD meeting on Monday 28 August. It was supposed to be giving evidence to the committee on what progress it has made since the last inquiry. This forms part of the UNCRPD’s new investigation.
The government has instead said that it will give its evidence in March 2024. So, as campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) tweeted:
Please tag @VotePursglove and ask him why he’s not going to be in Geneva on Monday 28th August as UNCRDP are sitting to hear evidence from DDPOs, grass roots campaigns & charities on how since 2016 dis ppl human rights have been eroded even further https://t.co/dU49MdKvjW
— DPAC (@Dis_PPL_Protest) August 24, 2023
On 28 August the UNCRPD meeting went ahead without the UK government. However, disabled people’s organisations (DPOs), charities, and campaign groups did attend. The evidence they gave was damning.
The Canary previously reported on the more-than-28,000-word report a coalition of DPOs submitted to the UNCRPD. Evidence within it included that:
People from the group presented further evidence directly to the committee on 28 August:
From mid March to July 2020 59% of Covid deaths were that of disabled people data collected by ONS
— DPAC (@Dis_PPL_Protest) August 28, 2023
Hearing now from @rensa_gaunt @InclusionLondon about terrible disproportionate impacts of Covid-19 on disabled ppl and the how Westminster gov refused 2 have BSLi at public briefings until forces by high court.#DisabilityTwitter #CRDP23 #WheresTom
— Ellen Clifford (@EllenClifford1) August 28, 2023
Person with a MH condition on DLA were 2.4 times more likely to have their support removed with a PIP assessment
— paula peters (@paulapeters2) August 28, 2023
#CRPDNow! "The Work Capability Assessment regime, labelled a 'human catastrophe for disabled people by the previous chair of the CRPD Committee, has remained in place." Follow live at https://t.co/ZxPkBS9A1o! pic.twitter.com/GMBi30Xl5G
— International Disability Alliance (IDA) (@IDA_CRPD_Forum) August 28, 2023
You can watch the full meeting here.
The evidence DPOs and others gave to the UNCRPD was damning. Paul Ntulila told the UNCRPD:
7.2 million households with a disabled person are living in poverty. This accounts for just over 10% of the UK’s population, but half of all UK poverty. Deaf and disabled people are almost three-times as likely to be in material deprivation than the rest of the population. Benefits in the UK are comparatively low by international standards, with one of the lowest rates relative to the average earnings.
He also added that analysis of the impact of tax and welfare changes between 2010 and 2021 showed that deaf and disabled people were “among the biggest losers”. The level of disability within a household was directly linked to higher annual cash loss.
Ntulila went on to say that:
The four-year benefit freeze from 2016 to 2020 affected 27 million people – sweeping another 400,000 into poverty. It is not true that this did not affect disabled people… Benefits have not been restored to their real-terms value.
The Canary has documented much of what Ntulila spoke of. Overall, it’s of little wonder the Tories pulled out of the meeting – as everything mentioned was one damning indictment of their successive tenures after another.
Of course, the government is in denial over the issues DPOs have raised. It told the Mirror:
The Government is fully committed to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the advancement of rights for disabled people in this country.
We have followed all of the Committee’s required procedures and we will present the UK’s progress at a hearing in March 2024.
Ask many chronically ill, deaf, and disabled people and they would likely disagree with the government’s claims of ‘commitment’ to the UNCRPD.
Kamran Mallick is the CEO of DPO Disability Rights UK. He issued a damning summation of the situation in the country for chronically ill, deaf, and disabled people:
The UK government is fully aware of the mountain of evidence showing the poor life chances and outcomes for its 14 million disabled citizens, but consistently fails to act. It fails to take seriously its commitments to the UNCRPD and to you. It fails to take seriously its duty to improve the life chances of every disabled citizen in the UK. It refuses to support deaf and disabled people’s organisations and engage with us in structured, meaningful ways.
The absence of the Tories at the UNCRPD meeting is hardly surprising. It is their willful neglect, disregard, and lack of care that led to the failures in the 2016 UNCRPD report. Their entrenched contempt for chronically ill, deaf, and disabled people now looks set to lead to an even worse report this time.
Featured image via 5 News – YouTube and Wikimedia
By Steve Topple
This post was originally published on Canary.
A survey has shown that just under a third (30%) of chronically ill people, or those who are injured and off work, are now in debt to the tune of over £1,500. Moreover, over a third (34%) of them say they are struggling to keep on top of their bills. The results of the survey show that benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are failing to support people when they need it.
As the Canary has documented, chronic illness is a major issue in the UK. 2.5 million working-age people are classed as economically inactive due to long-term sickness – with 38% of them living with five or more health conditions. This is an increase of over 400,000 people since the start of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Much of the increase may be due to long Covid. There’s also been an increase in people living with mental health issues. There’s also been changes in people’s health. As the Office for National Statistics (ONS) wrote:
Between 2016 and 2019, there was a small fall in the proportion of people who reported no health conditions, decreasing from 71% to 69%. However, from the onset of the… pandemic, this downward trajectory accelerated so that in January to March 2023, only 64% of working-age people reported having no health conditions. This is an absolute drop of 2 million since the same period in 2019. Conversely, the number of people who reported having one or two health conditions has steadily increased over time, from 8.5 million (21%) in 2016 to 10.6 million (25%) in 2023.
That is, people who are sick have been getting sicker. Now, a survey has found that many of these chronically ill people are struggling financially.
Credit management company Lowell ran a survey of people who were either chronically ill or off work injured in May. The results were stark. It found that in terms of finances:
Then, in terms of family finances:
Overall, 30% of respondents said they were now in £1,500 or more worth of debt due to their health. Of course, all this comes as the DWP has failed to make benefits sufficient to keep people out of poverty.
As the Canary has documented, for years the DWP either froze benefits rates, or failed to make them enough to cover the rising cost of everything. Think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that for Universal Credit and other benefits:
Compared with their pre-pandemic… levels, real benefit rates were 7.6% lower in 2022… and will be 6.2% lower in 2023… and still 2.0% lower in 2024
That is, the DWP is not giving chronically ill people enough money to live on. So, it is of little wonder that Lowell’s survey found so many people were struggling.
Being chronically ill in the UK is a perfect storm of state-sanctioned chaos. Often, the NHS fails to give people the support and treatment they need. Then, they can’t work. When they turn to the DWP, it fails to provide them with enough to live on. So, they then get into debt or their families have to work more.
The situation is only projected to get worse. As the Health Foundation wrote:
9.1 million people in England are projected to be living with major illness by 2040, an increase of 2.5 million people compared to 2019.
Unless the government, the NHS, and other public bodies take action quickly, what Lowell found in its survey will end up being the tip of the iceberg.
Featured image via Horacio Olavarria – Unsplash
By Steve Topple
Get ready for the next phase of the government’s war on thought crimes: mental health round-ups and involuntary detentions.
Under the guise of public health and safety, the government could use mental health care as a pretext for targeting and locking up dissidents, activists and anyone unfortunate enough to be placed on a government watch list.
If we don’t nip this in the bud, and soon, this will become yet another pretext by which government officials can violate the First and Fourth Amendments at will.
This is how it begins.
In communities across the nation, police are being empowered to forcibly detain individuals they believe might be mentally ill, based solely on their own judgment, even if those individuals pose no danger to others.
In New York City, for example, you could find yourself forcibly hospitalized for suspected mental illness if you carry “firmly held beliefs not congruent with cultural ideas,” exhibit a “willingness to engage in meaningful discussion,” have “excessive fears of specific stimuli,” or refuse “voluntary treatment recommendations.”
While these programs are ostensibly aimed at getting the homeless off the streets, when combined with advances in mass surveillance technologies, artificial intelligence-powered programs that can track people by their biometrics and behavior, mental health sensor data (tracked by wearable data and monitored by government agencies such as HARPA), threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, pre-crime initiatives, red flag gun laws, and mental health first-aid programs aimed at training gatekeepers to identify who might pose a threat to public safety, they could well signal a tipping point in the government’s efforts to penalize those engaging in so-called “thought crimes.”
As the AP reports, federal officials are already looking into how to add “‘identifiable patient datan,’ such as mental health, substance use and behavioral health information from group homes, shelters, jails, detox facilities and schools,” to its surveillance toolkit.
Now, through the use of red flag laws, behavioral threat assessments, and pre-crime policing prevention programs, the groundwork is being laid that would allow the government to weaponize the label of mental illness as a means of exiling those whistleblowers, dissidents and freedom fighters who refuse to march in lockstep with its dictates.
Of course, this is all part of a larger trend in American governance whereby dissent is criminalized and pathologized, and dissenters are censored, silenced, declared unfit for society, labelled dangerous or extremist, or turned into outcasts and exiled.
Red flag gun laws (which authorize government officials to seize guns from individuals viewed as a danger to themselves or others), are a perfect example of this mindset at work and the ramifications of where this could lead.
As The Washington Post reports, these red flag gun laws “allow a family member, roommate, beau, law enforcement officer or any type of medical professional to file a petition [with a court] asking that a person’s home be temporarily cleared of firearms. It doesn’t require a mental-health diagnosis or an arrest.”
With these red flag gun laws, the stated intention is to disarm individuals who are potential threats.
While in theory it appears perfectly reasonable to want to disarm individuals who are clearly suicidal and/or pose an “immediate danger” to themselves or others, where the problem arises is when you put the power to determine who is a potential danger in the hands of government agencies, the courts and the police.
Remember, this is the same government that uses the words “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist” interchangeably.
This is the same government whose agents are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media, behavior sensing software, and citizen spies to identify potential threats.
This is the same government that keeps re-upping the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the military to detain American citizens with no access to friends, family or the courts if the government believes them to be a threat.
This is the same government that has a growing list—shared with fusion centers and law enforcement agencies—of ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that could flag someone as suspicious and result in their being labeled potential enemies of the state.
For instance, if you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you could be at the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.
Moreover, as a New York Times editorial warns, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a. domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the police if you are afraid that the government is plotting to confiscate your firearms, if you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law, or if you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car.
Let that sink in a moment.
Now consider the ramifications of giving police that kind of authority in order to preemptively neutralize a potential threat, and you’ll understand why some might view these mental health round-ups with trepidation.
No matter how well-meaning the politicians make these encroachments on our rights appear, in the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes.
Even the most well-intentioned government law or program can be—and has been—perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation.
The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, the war on COVID-19: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns and have since become weapons of compliance and control in the government’s hands. For instance, the very same mass surveillance technologies that were supposedly so necessary to fight the spread of COVID-19 are now being used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, harass marginalized communities, and link people’s health information to other surveillance and law enforcement tools.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we are moving fast down that slippery slope to an authoritarian society in which the only opinions, ideas and speech expressed are the ones permitted by the government and its corporate cohorts.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
By Leitu Fereti in Suva
The Brown Girl Woke initiative hopes to continue empowering Samoan youth in fighting against the culture of silence over violence.
Founder Maluseu Doris Tulifau says it is essential to support young people in finding their voice and speaking out on these issues.
Tulifau, 29, launched the non-profit feminist organisation in the US in 2014, and used the platform to share her own experience as a survivor of violence. She worked in community development and human rights in California before moving to Samoa.
“I’m a survivor of sexual abuse and when I started to tell my story in America, I was already an activist promoting Pacific Islanders in higher education,” Tulifau said.
In 2018, she began the second chapter of Brown Girl Woke initiative in Samoa where she uncovered the culture of silence and factors that fueled this.
“There are many reasons a lot of us don’t reach that pedigree because of social issues, economic background and our environment around taboo issues and not speaking out.
“I wanted to empower young women and men on these taboo issues in the community, especially on domestic violence and sexual abuse,” Tulifau said.
Suffering in silence
The organisation’s humble beginnings motivated her to create an environment of refuge for girls who were suffering in silence.
“I started Brown Girl Woke as a club university for girls to be a part of a support group, with the understanding that they would find solutions, understand patriarchy and why women don’t speak up,” she explained.
Today, Brown Girl Woke is working with primary and secondary schools to educate and create awareness on a range of social issue.
“We now run after school programmes that teach literary, safety kids, climate change, stem and more. We teach about human rights and as a feminist organisation, we also teach about systems that protect gender inequality,” said Tulifau.
“We now have two Brown Girl Woke clubs — at the National University of Samoa and The University of the South Pacific.”
The performing arts has also become a safe space for Brown Girl Woke to raise awareness and provide a voice for young people.
‘Shame or blame’
“We would conduct workshops using songs, dance, spoken word poetry and skits. This is the way to tell their story and feel safe and supported, and unmasking themselves without feeling shame or blame,” she said.
Aside from supporting those affected by violence, Tulifau and her group of activists at BGW have also been helping with a range of issues such as sexual health, youth development, mental health, as well as awareness on the representation of women in Parliament.
The teams have also helped children in intensive care, funding scholarships for undergraduate students and providing monthly groceries for families in need in the country.
Tulifau acknowledged the many donations and contributions to their cause over the years.
Leitu Fereti of Samoa is a final-year journalism student at USP’s Laucala campus. She is also a reporter for Wansolwara, USP Journalism’s flagship student journalist training newspaper and online publication. Asia Pacific Report and Wansolwara collaborate.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
By Abda Khan
Here in the UK, domestic abuse is rife. In England and Wales for example, the police receive a domestic-abuse related call every 30 seconds.
However, the reality is much deeper.
With only 24% of cases of abuse are reported to the police, we know that more and more people (of all genders) are suffering.
There is, however, a massive gender disparity, with 84% of victims identifying as female and 93% of perpetrators identifying as male.
Domestic abuse tears apart lives, with long term – even deadly – consequences.
For example, affected women are twice as likely to face depression and homelessness.
What’s more, on average two women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales. And it doesn’t end there.
An estimated further three women a week die by suicide as a result of domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse however comes in many diverse forms, which we need to be able to identify and report.
By raising awareness of domestic abuse, we can increase understanding amongst survivors and their friends and family.
And, we can critically encourage survivors to come forward.
We can then work towards ending the abuse more quickly, increasing police referrals and subsequently upping conviction rates. It’s not an easy process though.
On average, it takes a woman seven attempts to leave an abusive partner for good.
With abuse often psychological, as well as physical, the damage can be deep-seated, affecting a survivor’s confidence and even causing them to doubt the severity of the situation.
Abuse can often seem invisible and multi-faceted. But what does it look like?
Well, it can be:
The abuse could be taking place in the house or, for example, remotely through the use of technology.
Abuse could include harassment, stalking, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and other forms of “honour” abuse.
Critically it may present as one-off or ongoing behaviour repeated over time.
A partner might be sending abusive texts, accessing their partners’ devices, tracking their partner or sharing intimate images online (including revenge porn).
Whatever the form though, it’s designed to exert power and control. And it’s both morally wrong – and illegal here in the UK.
Each case is unique and it’s important that we learn to understand what it is, and how to support survivors.
A term we’re increasingly hearing more of – but which is often never heard of or misunderstood – is “gaslighting”.
So, what is it?
Well, gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse, where the victim is led to doubt their own judgement and perception of reality through the abuser’s repeated denials, deflections and lies.
The term was first used in the 1944 film Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.
However, this was in fact a remake of the 1940 British film of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1938 play Gas Light.
In this film, Paula is manipulated by her husband, Gregory, into believing she is insane.
Paula’s late aunt’s priceless jewels are hidden in the house: if Paula is declared insane and sent to an asylum, Gregory can search for the jewels in peace.
One of his main strategies in persuading Paula she is losing her mind is his manipulation of the gaslights in their home.
Whenever he sneaks off to the attic to search for the jewels, he switches on the lights in that part of the house: this leads all other lights to flicker and dim.
Upon returning to Paula, he denies all knowledge of this, leading her to question her sanity.
And that’s what makes gaslighting so insidious.
Gaslighting can happen among colleagues, family members, intimate partners and friends. Yes, really.
For this blog, the focus is gaslighting within an intimate relationship. But the principles are the same.
Whoever the perpetrator, it’s abuse. And the key is: intention.
Take a look at the video for typical examples of what a gaslighter will say to manipulate their partner:
If you’re still unsure, here’s a quick check list:
Denial could be about differences in personal recollections/memories, but here’s the crux: gaslighting is about deliberate intentional manipulation of another person.
Gaslighting isn’t about disagreeing.
No, it’s about deliberate repeated attempts to conceal/deny one’s behaviour and make the other person doubt their reality.
A gaslighter knows exactly what they are doing. And that’s why they do it.
Their tactics include:
They’ll lie and exaggerate to the other person, then repeat the abuse. When challenged, things will escalate.
They’ll continue in an attempt to wear out the victim, forming a co-dependent relationship.
Take a look at the stories of Julie, Angela and Deborah to see how their gaslighting partners tore apart their self-confidence.
The abuse these women suffered was ongoing, merciless and wicked.
Gaslighters may offer false hope, yet all the while, they’ll be dominating, overwhelming and controlling their partners.
It’s repeated mental cruelty.
And the effects?
Well, as gaslighting is meant to induce uncertainty and self-doubt, a survivor’s mental health may really suffer.
Survivors often experience (increased) anxiety or depression, with their sense of self-esteem shattered.
Domestic abuse can also result in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), with a survivor becoming hypervigilant due to the fear of danger, or even suicidal.
The effects are mentally damaging – whilst not forgetting the risk of additional physical abuse.
It’s therefore critical that we raise awareness of what gaslighting is and how those affected can seek support.
Together, we must recognise signs, look out for loved ones and know how and where to seek help.
If you’re worried about yourself or a loved one, look out for these signs:
Of course, some of these thoughts and feelings can also be symptomatic of general anxiety or depression (and relate to a whole other range of contexts).
But, here’s the key: if you don’t usually feel this way with other people but do with one particular individual, then you might be a victim of gaslighting.
And here’s how to seek support. Please do reach out to friends, family and support services.
If you’re being gaslit:
If you’re being gaslit by a partner, friend, family member or colleague, here’s how you can seek support:
1. Identify the problem
Recognising the problem is the first step.
Name what is going on if you feel you’re in a place to do so.
In order to lessen the confusion and be sure of things in your own mind, try keeping a diary. This way you’ll have an accurate, up-to-date record of what was said/done and by whom.
Next, write down how you felt at the time. Look for signs of repeated denials of your experience.
Reach out to a friend of family member to unburden your mind and make plans.
The decision must be yours and yours alone. Help is out there if you do want to make this brave move.
2. Seek support from a specialist organisation
Contact a specialist service such as:
If you’re ever in any physical danger, please dial 999 (UK residents) immediately to speak to the police.
If someone you know is being gaslit:
It can be incredibly hard to know how to support a loved one. Here’s how you can take that step.
Firstly, let them know you’ve noticed something is wrong.
If they do talk:
Gaslighting is more common than we realise, but this term and type of abuse is still so very much understood.
That’s why we need to raise as much awareness as possible.
Gaslighting is abuse – it’s wrong and it needs to stop. But if you or a loved one has been affected, it’s not the end – there is help out there.
So please, reach out for help, support loved ones and also share this blog far and wide – you never know who it may help.
About the author
Abda Khan is a lawyer turned writer and author.
She is author of the novels “Stained” (2016) and “Razia” (2019), having also recently published her debut poetry collection “Losing Battles, Winning Wars” (2023).
Abda writes commissioned pieces (short scripts, poetry, fiction and non-fiction) for various publications, organisations and projects. She also runs creative writing courses and workshops specialising in issues affecting women, and produces and directs a variety of creative projects.
Abda is a Desi Blitz Arts Ambassador, a Lloyds Bank Women of the Future Ambassador and was named British Muslim Woman of the Year in 2019.
By Alualumoana Luaitalo, Te Rito journalism cadet
A new business initiative in Aotearoa New Zealand aims to open up conversations about the benefits of kava on mental health.
Tongan entrepreneur ‘Anau Mesui-Henry and her photographer husband Todd Henry own Four Shells Kava Lounge in Auckland, creating a space for the community to use the Pacific Island drink to maintain its value and cultural identity.
They have started talanoa on kava and mental health in Auckland, Wellington and Gisborne.
The couple say the KAVAX sessions bring in people from all walks of life, and they get to enjoy some authentic kava for the night.
Mesui-Henry says because it is talanoa, it is open for everyone to come together and speak.
“Not all people will open up and share, but it’s a safe space where they can come through, indulge in some kava and explore solutions on how we can heal using our Pasifika culture,” she says.
“It’s the mana in knowing your natural tāonga, a tool to help us as people to heal and the silent battles that we face.”
Pasifika tools to connect
Mesui-Henry says although organisations like the Mental Health Foundation are doing great work with the resources they have, a “white approach” will not work alone.
She says Pasifika people have the tools to connect through kava, and improve mental health.
Mesui-Henry says some of the misconceptions around kava they have to work on dispelling are that it is bad for you, it’s “muddy water”, or once it numbs you, you are drunk.
“We are a community grassroots kind of place, and knowing our cultural keystone, kava has a place in society.”
Kava is part of significant cultural practices in different Pacific Islands, is known internationally for its relaxing properties, and is used as a herbal remedy.
The website of the Alcohol and Drug Foundation NZ advises that if a large amount of kava is consumed the following effects may be experienced: drowsiness, nausea, loss of muscle control, mild fever and pupil dilation and red eyes.
It is legal to drink kava in New Zealand.
A Pacific Media Network News article under the Public Interest Journalism Fund. Republished with permission.
Typically, one hears the term “carceral” used in discussions of prisons and jails. One significant aim of the prison abolition movement is to critique and eliminate carceral forms of state punishment that encage, degrade and dehumanize human beings while stripping them of agency. It is important, though, that we begin to extend our understanding of carceral spaces to what are commonly considered…
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced further plans for co-working with the NHS. The proposals will allow GPs to refer chronically ill and disabled people to “employment support“. Currently, the scheme will be voluntary. However, the programme represents yet another move by the DWP to get its claws into NHS settings. Moreover, it further pushes the false narrative that ‘work is good for your health’.
The DWP said on its website that:
More than 25,000 people with health conditions will be helped to start and stay in work thanks to over £58m in new government funding.
As the Daily Record reported:
Those on the scheme, called the ‘Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC)’ programme, will be given employment support alongside their normal health treatment. The support will cover 12 areas across 41 local authorities in England, and participants will be referred to the service by healthcare professionals such as GPs.
Details are still sketchy, as the DWP only started the scheme in April. It says the Individual Placement and Support in Primary Care (IPSPC) programme will be “providing on-the-job “place and train” employment support and advice”. The scheme is voluntary, and it’s open to people NHS professionals identify as eligible. Participants don’t have to be claiming benefits. However, they do have to meet certain criteria. The DWP says people can either be:
Out-of-Work Participants who require assistance and support to move into sustainable employment, [or] In-Work Participants who are employed and either off sick or struggling in the workplace due to their disability.
Of course, the scheme isn’t actually being run by the NHS. Local authorities are applying for funding from the DWP. Then, they can use the cash to outsource the running of IPSPC to private companies or charities. For example, Greater Manchester Combined Authority has already done this. These new organisations will then integrate into the NHS.
Private providers once again getting public sector contracts in the NHS is privatisation, in everything but name. But aside from that, the DWP’s IPSPC scheme is littered with problems.
First, and the DWP has based IPSPC on a US model of healthcare-based employment support – the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) programme. This was designed for people living with serious mental health issues – not chronic illness or physical impairments. The DWP and NHS already implemented IPS for people living with mental health issues in the UK.
The creators of IPS claim it’s evidence-based. However, one study found IPS only got people into work for a limited time. After six years, there was not a significant gap in employment outcomes between IPS and people who had standard psychiatric treatment. Moreover, the success of IPS in the UK is questionable, too. Between January 2016 and March 2019:
Hardly a resounding success. It’s debatable whether outcomes for chronically ill and disabled people would be any better.
Then, there’s the issue of the DWP once again invading the sanctity of the healthcare environment. The IPSPC scheme ‘integrating’ “employment support and advice… with [a patient’s] normal health treatment” is wholly inappropriate. As professor Helen Stokes-Lampard previously told the Independent regarding the DWP wanting to access patient’s medical records:
We are doctors, whose first interest is the care of our patient: we are not border guards, and we are not benefits assessors.
However, perhaps the most damaging part of the DWP’s IPSPC plans is its central claim that work is somehow good for you.
The DWP says that the basis of the IPSPC scheme is:
Recognising employment as an important driver of health and wellbeing
Likewise, the founders of IPS claim:
Work is the best treatment we have for serious mental illness (i.e., people with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, bipolar, or depression)… Being productive is a basic human need. Working can both be a way out of poverty and prevent entry into the disability system. Competitive employment has a positive impact on self-esteem, life satisfaction, and reducing symptoms
Most of this is demonstrable nonsense. For example, saying work is a ‘way out of poverty’ is untrue in both the US and UK – as in-work poverty rates show. But it’s the IPS’ founders’ key claim that work acts as a health treatment that’s most damaging – and it’s a claim that the DWP also repeatedly makes.
The idea that working is good for your health is simply not true – especially in the UK. As researcher Kitty S Jones wrote, the DWP itself helped create this fallacy:
There is plenty of evidence that indicates government policy is not founded on empirical evidence, but rather, it is ideologically framed, and often founded on deceitful contrivance. A… [DWP] research document published back in 2011 – Routes onto Employment and Support Allowance – said that if people believed that work was good for them, they were less likely to claim or stay on disability benefits.
So a political decision was made that people should be “encouraged” to believe that work was “good” for their health. There is no empirical basis for the belief, and the purpose of encouraging it is simply to cut the numbers of disabled people claiming… [benefits] by “helping” them into work.
Clinical psychologist Dr Jay Watts previously told the Canary that by saying work is good for your health the DWP is reinforcing:
the message work is the central goal of a meaningful life. This increases the shame, guilt and anxiety disabled people already feel. Even more so under a welfare system that equates worklessness with worthlessness. It is exacerbating mental health problems. The goal of mental health services has always been to improve quality of life and reduce distressing symptoms…
This ‘back to work’ obsession places huge demand on patients to fulfil the neoliberal dream. One whereby health is linked to how much one can contribute to the public purse. But this is foreclosing the reality of long-term disability. We do not, would not, hear that chemotherapy is worth funding because it helps the public purse through getting people back to work.
While the DWP’s IPSPC said to be voluntary, this ignores the reality of chronically ill and disabled people’s lived experience. If a medical professional tells you that something may help you feel better, you’re likely to believe them and accept it. We’ve seen this before with the disease myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and exercise therapy. This treatment actually made patients worse when they carried it out – yet because of dishonest research, doctors were pushing it onto patients anyway.
However, the bigger picture here is that once again, the DWP is manipulating both patients and some medical professionals into thinking that engaging in what will likely be low-paid work is somehow good for chronically ill and disabled people. As is often the case, it’s doing this to cut costs.
In reality, it’s a lie that work is a blanket solution to chronically ill and disabled people’s problems. What they need is proper medical care, a social security system that doesn’t penalise and stigmatise them, and a society that is fully accessible. The DWP is none of those things – nor is this latest scheme.
Feature image via the DWP – YouTube and the NHS – Wikimedia
By Steve Topple
This post was originally published on Canary.
70.1% of primary caregivers cite “a sense of family responsibility” as the main reason that they became a carer. But what does that actually mean? Alice (a pseudonym) cared for her mum for over 30 years. Now in her 50s, she reflects on the sense of loyalty, love and family responsibility which shaped their relationship.
“It was duty, it was devotion,” says Alice on why she was a carer for her mum. In the early years, she predominantly did domestic tasks like shopping, cooking and cleaning.
“Well, I had older siblings who–when I was hitting 13–they were getting married, moving out, living life. Mum was in chronic head, neck, spinal pain. […] And dad took any shift he could, just to keep the money coming in. So, I was the only one at home.”
Alice and her siblings had also seen how devoted their mum was to her own mum. The expectation was that, when you love someone, “that’s just what you do.”
“But it was not my choice.”
Once Alice had left home, her responsibilities remained: “I don’t think mum meant it maliciously, I just think I was the unmarried youngest kid who had no kids… so the expectation was ‘oh, Alice will do it!’”
Alice’s family saw an ‘absence’ of responsibilities–no kids, no partner–where there was actually a plethora of responsibilities; a demanding job, and Alice’s own health conditions. Although Alice was devalued as a woman without kids, she would never have “refused” to care for her mum. “I just wanted some understanding.”
There were never any conversations about the possibility of Alice taking on a care role. It was expected of her, not only by her parents–who needed the children to “pull their weight” in the household–but also by her siblings. In a family of daughters, “The default was me.”
I reached out to Ella, a Community Carer who provides in-home personal care and assistance to elderly people. She spoke about the different kinds of isolation her clients feel. “The amount of my clients who are so lonely and barely hear from their families is quite heartbreaking […]. The quality of life of my clients who have families continually involved and visiting is insurmountable compared to clients who are more isolated from their families.”
As Ella told me, it’s “about recognising the elderly person” and treating them like a human being.
Alice became her mum’s main lifeline later in life, particularly after the death of her father. Her mum didn’t want to be a “burden” to the whole family.
“I had a different perspective on mum […]. I saw her at her lowest, and mum didn’t know how to deal with that.”
Her mum called her at 8am one morning; a “bad sign”, says Alice. Her mum revealed that she “‘hadn’t had any power all night.’ We were in the middle of winter. I called in sick [at work], drove over there… The fuse had blown, and she didn’t know how to fix it. So I found her in the middle of August, wrapped in blankets in a chair, shivering.”
However, “it was very isolating” to see her mum in this way. Other people weren’t allowed to see the “behind the scenes” version of Alice’s mum who was wrapped in blankets without heat on a winter morning.
Alice reflects on how her mum’s declining mental and physical health shrunk her mum’s world. “It’s really horrible watching your parents turn into children.” It is jarring when the roles of mother and daughter are reversed, and the new dynamic can even be “upsetting and frightening”.
Caring for her mum became all consuming for Alice, too. “You know, she was my mum and I loved her.”
Alice and one of her siblings took on enormous responsibilities with their mum’s end-of-life care as well: “we were both running on fumes… we hadn’t had a nanosecond’s break.” It was doing day-to-day tasks and errands for her mum, preparing the house to be sold, getting her in and out of respite and nursing homes… all while holding down a full time job.
Family members were saying, “You’re doing too much, this is killing you, you guys have got to have a life.” But Alice had invested all of herself in caring for her mum.
Being a carer became her identity, and it shaped how she interacted with the world around her.
Having gone through her own personal difficulties, Alice realised she was “actively seeking the carer’s role to recover […]. I didn’t have to go to social engagements and I didn’t have to pretend everything was okay… It was just, “Oh no, sorry! I can’t do that today, I’ve gotta look after mum.”
“So after she died, I had this huge gap in my life. I missed my forties and my late thirties because I was a carer, and I missed my teenage years.”
“I spent so much of my life caring for her that I find it really hard now to fill in time. […] Even just recently I’ve still got this desire to ring her and make sure she’s okay.”
Alice tells me that, above all, it’s important to “be selfish and take some time for yourself. Because caring ends… And even though that’s really hard, you’ve got a life you’ve gotta go back to. And if you haven’t laid foundations for that life, then it’s really hard to kick start it again.”
Ella, too, confesses that, “I often run myself into the ground […]. I’m definitely learning to set boundaries and recognise that I can’t properly care for others unless I look after myself first.”
The post Carer spotlight: Alice’s story of duty, isolation, identity appeared first on BroadAgenda.
This post was originally published on BroadAgenda.
America’s “war on terror,” launched in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, has had a staggering impact on our world. The Costs of War Project at Brown University, which I helped found, paints as full a picture as possible of the toll of those “forever wars” both in human lives and in dollars. The wars, we estimate, have killed nearly one million…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
‘I chewed my way through the restraints in front of two security guards who were laughing at me’, says one woman
When Victoria’s mental health royal commission made landmark findings of systemic human rights breaches in 2021, there was little that surprised Anna*.
At the time of the inquiry’s hearings, Anna had numerous stints in the psychiatric wards of Victorian public hospitals. She said the experiences were “dehumanising” and often chipped away at her will to live.
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Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
By: Claire Benny
See original post here.
Income inequality has been linked to poor physical and mental health in past research, but more recent evidence suggests the issue of income inequality may be much more severe than previously expected.
While completing my PhD in epidemiology at the University of Alberta, I published a study highlighting an association between experiencing income inequality in youth and deaths of despair among young Canadians.
Deaths of despair are deaths attributable to suicide, drug overdose and alcohol-related liver disease. These deaths are on the rise in Canada, and finding points of intervention is key to reducing the burden of this crisis.
In collaboration with my doctoral supervisor, Roman Pabayo, I led a study on a representative sample of Canadian youth and followed them up over a 13-year period to calculate average hazard for deaths of despair. The study sample included 1.5 million Canadians between the ages of 0 and 19 from 2006 to 2018.
Income inequality is the gap between the highest and lowest earners in a given area. It can contribute to people’s risk of poor health, and specifically mental health, in a few key ways.
First, in areas with higher income inequality, people are less likely to relate to their neighbours, regardless of whether they earn more or less income than they do. This can lead to social comparisons, which are detrimental for mental health and self esteem.
Secondly, this lack of connection with those around you — also called “social cohesion” — can cause mistrust and ill feelings about others. This in turn can lead people to become withdrawn or isolate themselves.
Lack of social cohesion and isolation are both risk factors for poor mental health and substance use.
Finally, areas where income inequality is higher are less likely to have the type of social programs that are key to improving the health of communities. For example, divesting in mental health services and supports can lead to worsened mental health, and removal or lack of harm reduction services and mental health services can put people at a higher risk of deaths of despair.
Deaths of despair are on the rise in Canada. Specifically, drug overdose death events have increased so rapidly that the drug poisoning crisis has been referred to as an epidemic. This is a major concern, as these deaths have strong impacts on the well-being of communities, families and friends; but also because this crisis doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.
The impact the crisis is having on young Canadians is especially important, considering that unfamiliarity with substances, lower tolerance and risk-taking behaviours may leave them at an increased risk for drug overdose. Further, suicide is a leading cause of death among young people in Canada, indicating a critical need to intervene.
The results of this new study also showed that higher levels of income inequality in youth are associated with an increased hazard of death from any cause, deaths of despair and drug overdose in young Canadians.
My colleagues and I are continuing this work by investigating income inequality and deaths of despair in other populations by using other indicators of social equity. We are also investigating more harms we suspect are associated with income inequality, such as hospitalizations owing to despair.
This line of work shows the urgent need for increased access to health services such as counselling and harm reduction, particularly in areas of higher income inequality, to reduce the risk of deaths of despair in these spaces.
The study results should be communicated to policymakers, who inform discussions on reducing income inequality and harms due to drug overdose, suicide and alcohol-related liver disease. Programs to mitigate this problem may include cash transfer programs, increases to minimum wage, or universal basic income programs to reduce the gap between the highest and lowest earners.
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