Invisible suffering

Unite EC member Joyce Still spoke on behalf of Unite at the final day of the Labour party conference today (September 30) on the pressing need for mental health service provision.

“Millions of people in this country day after day are dealing with anxiety, depression and paranoia in what becomes a personal prison,” she said.

“It is often invisible but the suffering experienced is significant.”

“The mantra that we must always be OK feeds the societal stigma of those experiencing mental health difficulties, which is said to be 1 in 4 of the population at some time in our lives,” Joyce added.

She explained the effects mental health difficulties can have on young people — it can “hold back their ability to learn, impede their chances of building friendships, can lead to bullying and damage the life chances of young people.”

“Discrimination in our labour market restricts those with mental health difficulties from gaining and keeping a decent job,” Joyce went on to say.

“The disgraceful attacks on social security and benefits that are being repeatedly carried out by this Government are having a devastating impact on young people experiencing mental health difficulties most sharply.”

Joyce highlighted the government’s “cruel sanctions regime”, in which the “punitive and tick box assessment methods to determine if people should receive benefits” have made claimants mental health issues significantly worse.

“This has also been linked to suicide in some tragic cases,” she said.

Joyce noted that in July, after refusing to say where the ÂŁ12 billion in welfare cuts would fall during the general election, Osborne announced that from April 2017 any disabled person claiming Employment and Support Allowance and placed in the Work Related Activity Group would receive the same benefit as those claiming JSA.

“These are people who the Government’s harsh regime will have deemed not currently able to work and they will lose £29 a week because of these cuts,” she said. “People in this situation and struggling to survive on benefits cannot afford this. Approximately a quarter of a million people with mental health problems will be affected.”

Joyce urged Conference to fight the government “every step of the way.”

“My union, Unite, and fellow NHS workers are looking forward to being part of the discussion to finally develop the positive mental health policy and action we need,” she concluded.

Watch Joyce’s full speech in the video below: