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Wessely Challenges Government to Ring-Fence Mental Health Spending

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Kati

Patient in training
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5,497
The article in The Independant is here

From twitter, just now:

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Andy Cowper (@HPIAndyCowper)
2016-04-02, 10:59 PM
Britain's top psychiatrist Simon Wessely challenges Government to ring-fence mental health spending. The Independent independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…


To which James Coyne responded:

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James C.Coyne (@CoyneoftheRealm)
2016-04-03, 12:32 AM
Then @WesselyS should stop diverting MH funds to ineffective treatment of physical problems like #MECFS twitter.com/hpiandycowper/…


As usual, like and retweet if you agree.
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
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3,043
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Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
HA! the hypocrisy of the evil weasel sh*thead!
When it's HIS income and prestige on the line, you bet he shouts out, and as always, attempts to appear to be the "caring moderate".

Old saying up here:
"You fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows"
and *no* that's not a call for harming him
it's simple fact of life that if you support evil and/or stupid, greedy leaders, then eventually you too will get ruined by the chaos and crap they cause.
 

TiredSam

The wise nematode hibernates
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2,677
Location
Germany
Wessely is a government agent plain and simple he is there to disempower as many people as possible by giving them a mental health label.

The "destigmatising of mental health campaign" being popularized is a fraud. At the very least it is being hijacked.

Surely you're not suggesting that the destigmatising of mental health suits the vested interests of those who would like to apply mental health labels to an increasing proportion of the population as an alternative to giving them proper medical care :jaw-drop:?

Of course they're sincere, look at the lengths they are going to to destigmatise benefits recipients. Who are sometimes the same people who have mental health needs.
 

Large Donner

Senior Member
Messages
866
Surely you're not suggesting that the destigmatising of mental health suits the vested interests of those who would like to apply mental health labels to an increasing proportion of the population as an alternative to giving them proper medical care :jaw-drop:?

Its not just about people who need medical care. Have you heard of the phrase politically insane used in regimes like the Soviet union and China in the past?

Its also about making the general public as impotent as possible politically, using stealth methods and propaganda but actually making them demand them.

First you create a problem with fear porn then pretend to sit around doing nothing about it as a government, then you wait for the public to set up groups to demand a resolution to it, then you pretend to offer solutions using sabotage of well meaning deliberately misdirected groups.

Anyone who opposes such actions is labelled a conspiracy theorist or a danger to the greater good.

Hence the "ME terrorists" and people who refuse to accept psychological explanations being labelled anti psychiatry.

One perfect example of such a waged campaign is the "freedom fries" spin in order to steer people to be divided and ruled in fear of being labelled unpatriotic for questioning the ethics of a bombing campaign on a whole country.

Slowly boiling frogs.

Age old tactics.
 

jimells

Senior Member
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2,009
Location
northern Maine
One perfect example of such a waged campaign is the "freedom fries" spin in order to steer people to be divided and ruled in fear of being labelled unpatriotic for questioning the ethics of a bombing campaign on a whole country.

And of course 13 years later Americans all love France again and have completely forgotten French refusal to murder Iraqis on orders from Uncle Sam. We are at war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania.
 

Hip

Senior Member
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17,824
Wessely is a government agent plain and simple he is there to disempower as many people as possible by giving them a mental health label.

Not to deny that Wessely often seems to represent the government line on things, but in this case, there is a desperate need to do something about the dire neglect of those with mental health conditions.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has pledged a massive increase in spending on mental health if he becomes Prime Minister, and I fully support this idea.

In this Brave New World, my feeling is that those with mental health issues are the new underclass; since the Labour Party and left-wing politics aim to help the underclass, I think this is a visionary policy decision by Jeremy Corbyn. I don't have any political affiliations to the left or right; but very much like Corbyn's policy on mental health.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
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13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
Not to deny that Wessely often seems to represent the government line on things, but in this case, there is a desperate need to do something about the dire neglect of those with mental health conditions.
This is right. There is a huge need. Which is why misdiagnosis is such a problem, as it takes services away from those who the services might help. Diagnostic expansion also means that huge numbers who are more or less normal and do not really need psychiatric or psychological services wind up in the system. Psychiatry could half fix the problem simply by not diagnosing based on tick box unvalidated criteria. The other half still requires government or other agency attention.
 

Hip

Senior Member
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17,824
Which is why misdiagnosis is such a problem, as it takes services away from those who the services might help.

I wouldn't think that viewing ME/CFS as psychiatric is going to affect the mental health budget much, since very little is actually offered to ME/CFS patients (a quick course of CBT, and a bit of exercise).


I think that where the money needs to be spent is not only mental health services, but also on biomedical mental health research. I think too much money is spent on psychological therapies that have very limited impact. I think more needs to be spend on uncovering the biological causes of mental health in the brain.
 

jimells

Senior Member
Messages
2,009
Location
northern Maine
I wouldn't think that viewing ME/CFS as psychiatric is going to affect the mental health budget much, since very little is actually offered to ME/CFS patients (a quick course of CBT, and a bit of exercise).

It's not just ME. They are trying to gather up all sorts of chronic illness to be treated only with psych methods. When one adds up all the patients with ME, Fibromyalgia, chronic pain, "functional" movement disorders, "non-epileptic" seizures, chronic lyme, multiple chemical sensitivities, etc, etc. the total is huge. And if all those slackers are diagnosed as psychosomatic then private disability benefits stop after two years. We are talking billions and billions at stake here.

Sir Simon is the "top shrink" because he's the president of the Royal College of Psychiatry. Whoop-dee-doo. His reward for loyal service to the Financial Empire, no doubt.
 

Large Donner

Senior Member
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866
Sir Simon is the "top shrink" because he's the president of the Royal College of Psychiatry. Whoop-dee-doo. His reward for loyal service to the Financial Empire, no doubt.

Denying the biomedical evidence in GWI on behalf of the UK gov does you no harm in acquiring such titles also, enabling the financial empire and the war mongering empire to remain one and the same.
 

Forbin

Senior Member
Messages
966
Sir Simon is the "top shrink" because he's the president of the Royal College of Psychiatry.

Yes - The Royal College of Psychiatrists is a professional organization, so the term "top" seems to be more organizational than qualitative. Sort of like calling the late Ken Howard America's "top screen actor," because he was the most recent president of the Screen Actors Guild.

The U.S. analog to the Royal College of Psychiatrists would probably be the American Psychiatric Association.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
It's not just ME. They are trying to gather up all sorts of chronic illness to be treated only with psych methods. When one adds up all the patients with ME, Fibromyalgia, chronic pain, "functional" movement disorders, "non-epileptic" seizures, chronic lyme, multiple chemical sensitivities, etc, etc. the total is huge. And if all those slackers are diagnosed as psychosomatic then private disability benefits stop after two years. We are talking billions and billions at stake here..

Certainly, I am fully aware of that. It's a big scam pulled of by the disability insurance industry, as they know that if they can make a disease look like it has a psychological etiological component (ie, biopsychosocial), then private disability benefits stop after two years. So then the disability insurance industry does not have to provide lifetime disability support to chronically ill patients with ME/CFS and other diseases labelled as biopsychosocial.

That's why so many of the Wessely school academics have paid consultancy work links to the disability insurance industry, because the Wessely school do the job of creating bogus science to make ME/CFS look as if it is psychologically-caused.


However, there is nothing in the Independent article to suggest that Wessely is advocating for more funding for anything other than standard mental health conditions (though I would not put it past Wessely that one of his ulterior motives is also to increase biopsychosocial research budgets, in order to help out his rich mates in the disability insurance industry).
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
Note that UnumProvident murdered 5000 Americans by one of it's scams (see the "Hungry vulture award", deliberate policy of denying genuine claims, resulting in many folk dying not able to afford health care)
and NO ONE was sent to jail for it, never mind executed, or drone bombed etc!

So they changed their name, to "UNUM"...said they were "changing their ways!"...jeesh...and who've they been working with for 20 years? the British Department of Work & Pensions!

Anyone else did what the corporations and Elite do, they'd be bombed, invaded, or "SEAL Team Sixed" for it!
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
I wouldn't think that viewing ME/CFS as psychiatric is going to affect the mental health budget much, since very little is actually offered to ME/CFS patients (a quick course of CBT, and a bit of exercise).
Its not just CFS but ADHD, bipolar, depression, etc. Its a full suite of overdiagnosis., and then overprescription of meds. Many need those meds. Not all who are prescribed them do.
 

meandthecat

Senior Member
Messages
206
Location
West country UK
Having seen first hand the incompetence and ignorance of the UK mental health services over many years, what strikes me is the 'top down' structure. The best interventions are made by people who care and people who are there but they are not supported by the institutions. The savage cuts on top of chronic underfunding have exhausted these people and turned them into box tickers.

Extra funds will only feed the top end of a dysfunctional approach to mental health and service users will continue to be marginalised, perhaps more so as the propaganda will shift the responsibility for their situation to their refusal to benefit from the treatments on offer.

I have encountered caring and wise professionals at all levels of the service, usually overwhelmed by the need.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
Its a full suite of overdiagnosis.

I am not really in touch with the front line of psychological professionals who deal with for example schoolchildren, so cannot comment on whether they are over-diagnosed or under-diagnosed.


But my general view is that psychological diagnosis should be used far more that it is in society.

I argue in this post that society should have a screening program in place for psychopaths (1% of the general population are psychopaths), such that psychopaths are prevented from holding influential or executive jobs, such corporate CEO, or a military commander.

A psychopath's lack of empathy and moral conscience, and inability to feel any guilt from their wrongdoing, makes them a bad choice for executive positions of responsibility.
 

A.B.

Senior Member
Messages
3,780
But my general view is that psychological diagnosis should be used far more that it is in society.

I argue in this post that society should have a screening program in place for psychopaths (1% of the general population are psychopaths), such that psychopaths are prevented from holding influential or executive jobs, such corporate CEO?

A psychopath's lack of empathy and moral conscience, and inability to feel any guilt from their wrongdoing, makes them a bad choice for executive positions of responsibility.

First they came for psychopaths, and I said nothing because I wasn't a psychopath...

Are you allright Hip?
 
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