MP Calls on Government to Launch Impact Assessment on Welfare Reform

Dame Anne Begg

During a Backbench debate on Welfare Reform, Dame Anne Begg MP called on the government to launch a cumulative impact assessment on their reforms to the welfare system which are unfairly targeting people with disabilities. The Back Bench Committee allocated time for this debate after a WOW petition was signed by over 100,000 people.

As Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, Dame Anne has continually called for the government to carry out a full impact assessment of welfare reform to show the effect they are having on people with disabilities.

Dame Anne said

“Although the Government states it isn’t picking on disabled people or people with health problems, their policies are impacting that group the hardest
“When you look at the changes they’ve made to the welfare system – Work Capability Assessments, Employment Support Allowance and the new Personal Independence Payments, you can see who they are aimed…

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My Headingley LitFest Event – The Dark Threads

Jean Davison

Tuesday 25th March was a big day (or rather evening) for me. I gave a talk at Oxfam Bookshop (as part of the Headingley Literature Festival) about my experiences in High Royds Hospital, as told in my memoir ‘The Dark Threads’. Of course, remembering how things had gone well on other similar occasions helped a lot, but I did still did have some pre-event nerves. Throughout the day my mind  kept going into collywobble mode and throwing up a lot of scary ‘What ifs..?’

What if I lose my vision in the middle of it? This wasn’t as daft as it sounds. Every now and then I get ophthalmic migraines which come on without warning and they severely affect my eyesight for a while. Sometimes I go a long time without having them, but once I get one they often come in clusters a couple of days apart and I’d had…

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National Osteoporosis Society Stop At One :: Check your risk

NOS Stop At One :: Check your risk.

It’s worth checking your risk factors for Osteoporosis – brittle bones – and one of these is mental health medication especially medication for psychosis.  Use the link above to take the short quiz and find out if you could be at risk.

Abolish Use Of Formal Psychiatric Diagnostic Systems – Please sign petition!

I just signed the petition “Royal College of Psychiatrists: Abolish use of formal psychiatric diagnostic systems like ICD & DSM” on Change.org.

It’s important. Will you sign it too? Here’s the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/royal-college-of-psychiatrists-abolish-use-of-formal-psychiatric-diagnostic-systems-like-icd-dsm?recruiter=31469676&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Thanks!

judith

Benefit Caps- Clarification

Benefit Caps- Clarification.

Alcohol May Not Help: Alcohol’s Impact on Your Mental Health | World of Psychology

Alcohol May Not Help: Alcohol’s Impact on Your Mental Health | World of Psychology.

Looping The Loop Festival 10-21 April 2014

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LOOPING THE LOOP FESTIVAL 10-21 APRIL 2014

 

In partnership with Battersea Arts Centre, four Thanet/East Kent arts organisations collaborate to create a feast of world-class performance – it’s live, local and yours for the taking.

 

Leading up to and over the Easter holiday, productions from BAC are presented alongside home-grown-in-Thanet plays, storytelling and street theatre from Scandalmongers, Ellie Jones and .dash theatre. There’s a theatre bus tour as well, a series of workshops and the three Thanet town centres of Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs will be taken over by The Dog Walkers in the run-up to the festival.

 

BAC productions are SHAME by John Berkavitch, MAJOR TOM by Victoria Melody, 97 YEARS by Jo Hellier and TEAM OF THE DECADES by Will Dickie. Home-grown productions are FIREBIRD by Emily Parrish/Scandalmongers, (IN)habit by .dash theatre, LOOPING THE LOOP TOUR by Anette Mutton with the performers collective and THE DOG WALKERS by Ellie Jones. 

 

(pic MAJOR TOM)   At this feast, LOOP BITES offer audiences and the merely intrigued a chance to meet up with the company and share food, for free – there’s supper with SHAME on Easter Saturday 19 April and pre-theatre drinks before MAJOR TOM on Easter Sunday 20 April – it’s our hope to entice the not-so-sure in to share an experience of live performance art, perhaps for the first time. We hope it’s not the last.

 

The four productions from BAC all explore stories of the individual or family. They include dog shows, beauty pageants, dementia, relationships and shame, presented in every which way through spoken word, dance, sound, film, projection and physical sport.

 

The Collaborative Touring Network at the core of the partnership links Thanet with Battersea Arts Centre and five other regional towns; Gloucester, Great Yarmouth, Torbay, Darlington and Hull (City of Culture 2017). Over three years the partnership will develop new models of touring theatre and lead to artists across the towns sharing new work, creating new networks.

 

There’s information on all the shows at www.loopingtheloopfestival.org.uk and tickets are booked through http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/548731  or 0800 411888. You can call 07939 542990 for a chat to find out anything more or email us at loopingthanet@gmail.com.

 

We hope to see you at the shows, down by the coast and the sandy beaches of Thanet. We plan to amuse and entertain you and most importantly to leave you wanting more. 

Forecasting psychosis risk – Medical News Today

Forecasting psychosis risk – Medical News Today.

New Childcare Contract for ATOS – WHY

jaynelinney

I know from the number of press articles, I’m not the only one astonished that ATOS – the now infamous IT Company with more trading arms than an octopus and renowned for both its part in the disastrous Border Agency computer meltdown in 2012 and its failure to administer the equally beleaguered Work Capability Assessments (WCA) for the DWP, have now been given the contract for delivering the Coalitions Childcare Voucher scheme. What I don’t get is WHY?

Before anyone tells me about the links between ATOS, its parent company UNUM and the extensive range of links – I’ve seen the speculation; but what I don’t understand is, given the recent scathing reports from both the public accounts committee, and the Work and Pensions Select on ATOS; WHY has the Treasury backed NS&I decided that ATOS are a suitable company to deliver anything; unless the caption below is true!

I find…

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Police poised to level charges in paedophile ring linked to MPs | ExaroNews

Police poised to level charges in paedophile ring linked to MPs | ExaroNews.