This week in mentalists (1)

To prove that I don’t actually spend all my time sitting around thinking about poo and mankinis, I’ve decided to create a weekly blogs round-up entitled “This Week in Mentalists” - basically a more mental health-themed version of the Britmeds.

Any nominations for next week’s Week in Mentalists to zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk

So, here goes…

Bipolar sufferer (and occasional Mental Nurse contributor) Seaneen is still having lots of trouble with benefits.

I am having a nightmare getting anything. I have been turned down for Incapacity Benefit and both my Income Support and Housing Benefit claims have gone AWOL, except, I got a letter today saying I needed to show my final earnings over at the Jobcentre. I have e-mailed and rang my ex-boss to no avail. More delays, with my rent and council tax due in a week, totalling over £600.

Anyone reading Seaneen’s blog regularly will know that she’s been unable to claim Incapacity Benefit as she hasn’t made enough NI contributions. As a result she’s forced to start and then get fired from a series of jobs that she simply is too ill to do. There really is something deeply inhumane about a “benefits” system that makes ill people jump through hoops like this.

Bonkers Bob is dubious that a Jungian/New Age form of psychotherapy is likely to be helpful for him.

It is very appealing to believe that there are soulful drug free treatments out there that can take the place of anti-psychotic medication with all the problems they can cause, I’m just not sure that any of them really work.

Surely science and the medical profession with all the research they carry out can’t be wrong, or maybe there is too much money too lose from the pharmaceutical industry by admitting sitting round a camp fire in the woods chanting and banging a drum cures schizophrenia.

The Shrink Isn’t convinced by it either.

Some themes espoused sound appealing. The antipsychiatry and antidrugs does not sound appealing. As Bob himselves says, he’s spent ages on in-patient wards and now his mix of medication and removing stress has thankfully kept him well for ages.

Mother Jones has noticed that mental health nurses don’t get as many thank-you gifts as general nurses.

Paranoid patients are not going to give gifts to nurses who can read their mind and who are trying to kill them with medications. We understand that, and we accept the logic of the situation. We also accept that we aren’t going to get candy and flowers from patients who display inappropriate behavior on the unit.

I would join in the call for more candy for mental health nurses, but I’m trying (and failing) to diet at the moment.

That’s pretty much it for this week. As you might gather, this will probably be a rather shorter list than the Britmeds, since it’s far more focused on mental health.