After an unexplained two week absence my latest appointment lasted all of about five minutes. He hadn't had the opportunity to speak to my GP, not sure how or why but there you go. This is apparently going to happen next week after which, at some random time, he will contact me. This will be a waste of time since nothing will come of this. Why, because he is the person who's supposed to be helping me according to the service the GP referred me to.
An absolutely spot on example of this came when he finished by telling me he had an idea of how I could obtain a bus pass. Remember, this is something he agreed I should have access to (important point). He had discovered another patient, with similar issues, had been referred to another social enterprise called Alliance Housing. I don't know much about them, but they do much the same thing as he does and the rest of these groups.
You might think, ok fair enough; give them a call. That's fine and I did (six week waiting list for an assessment notwithstanding). But the real issue is this: if he supports the idea of me having a bus pass, why can't he or his organisation sign off on one? I have no idea if Alliance Housing have the authority to do this. I'm sceptical since the application form asks specifically about being a patient of the actual mental health service, not just any group. Sure it's worth a try, but I doubt you can just talk to Alliance and ask for them to do this, obviously you'd have to be assessed and then develop a relationship for them to feel ok about doing this. It still doesn't address the question, and neither did he: why can't he sign off on this? Why am I being fobbed off like this? His reason was that "it wouldn't be right" because their service is short term only.
No it makes no sense to me either. Alliance Housing aren't going to be offering lifelong support, no one is.
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Thursday, 15 June 2017
Capitalism's Inferno
Some people might think it poor taste to 'politicise' or make political 'capital' out of a tragedy.
Those people are wrong.
They are also usually the sort that defends the system that, demonstrably, leads to the deaths of innocent working class people lashed up in firetraps such as we have seen.
Make no mistake this is political. It always was and, if things inexplicably don't change, they always will. Not since the miners strike - and perhaps not even that - will you see such a verdant example of how not only capitalism fails but communism works.
It is capitalism and nothing else that has created the conditions wherein ordinary human beings, citizens of this mean malfeasant land.
The drive for profit encourages the kind of corner cutting that leads to sub standard workmanship performed on the very homes people are forced - and make no mistake no one chooses to live in high rise deathtraps - to live in.
The capitalist class structure allows those who cut costs to justify it on the basis of traducing the identities of those their decisions will affect. It's only the poor after all, and they are ten a penny.
As for the political aspect (as if what I've just said isn't enough), we have, at the very least, the Tories to thank for this. That isn't to let New Labour off the hook as they had 13 years to address the larger issue here and were happy to treat the working class no less contemptibly, but they aren't in power. The Tories are and have been for 7 years. They have put in place policies that have affected the services that the working class now are forced to rely on (because they do not have the means to supply them directly, even though they could) to help them. Crisis centres have come into being from facilities that were shut, the emergency services, even though they responded quickly, are being cut to the bone. Grenfell is in the richest borough in the country run by a Tory council, how dare anyone question the need to politicise this.
Not only that but there are questions to be asked of those Tory scumbags (tautological, I know) who repeatedly block any and all efforts to make housing safe never mind habitable. It was Gavin Barswell, a housing minister who recently lost his seat now invited back into umber ten by Theresa May, who sat on a report dealing with exactly the issue at hand. The community in that tower repeatedly entreated the authorities to address their concerns and were bullied as a result. That is class war right there, by the way.
Then there are ghouls such as the appalling inhuman cunt, Philip Davies, inexplicably voted in by the capitalist class of Shipley (who no doubt profit from his position, which says it all really). A serial proponent of the filibuster, he has form shutting down discussion. This tells you all you need to know about the modern Tory: he's so arrogant that he's unwilling to even discuss an issue that he has to shut it down completely.
No doubt during the election you will have been told how important it is to vote. That's great. But the reality is that the Tories don't believe that, when you have venal scum like Davies abusing the mechanics of legislature to shut down the discourse without allowing for even others to talk never mind a vote.
And he did this on the very topic of law making that would compel landlords (such as the class he represents) to make housing fit for habitation. An example of which would be to ensure that the properties used in building a high rise aren't likely to turn a home for families into a hellscape.
He, like the rest of his part, like the rest of those corporate interests, like the entire capitalist landlord class, are culpable. They ALL have blood on their hands.
Homes are for a community, not for profit.
David Lammy, Labour MP, talks about a charge of corporate manslaughter. That doesn't go far enough and, while I agree there should be accountability (of the swinging from the rope kind). But that cannot be allowed to stop at the door of whatever contractor is hung out to dry by the furtive masters of the capitalist class. It must encompass the entirety of the British capitalist system - and that can be an example tot he rest of the world. No pasaran.
Those people are wrong.
They are also usually the sort that defends the system that, demonstrably, leads to the deaths of innocent working class people lashed up in firetraps such as we have seen.
Make no mistake this is political. It always was and, if things inexplicably don't change, they always will. Not since the miners strike - and perhaps not even that - will you see such a verdant example of how not only capitalism fails but communism works.
It is capitalism and nothing else that has created the conditions wherein ordinary human beings, citizens of this mean malfeasant land.
The drive for profit encourages the kind of corner cutting that leads to sub standard workmanship performed on the very homes people are forced - and make no mistake no one chooses to live in high rise deathtraps - to live in.
The capitalist class structure allows those who cut costs to justify it on the basis of traducing the identities of those their decisions will affect. It's only the poor after all, and they are ten a penny.
As for the political aspect (as if what I've just said isn't enough), we have, at the very least, the Tories to thank for this. That isn't to let New Labour off the hook as they had 13 years to address the larger issue here and were happy to treat the working class no less contemptibly, but they aren't in power. The Tories are and have been for 7 years. They have put in place policies that have affected the services that the working class now are forced to rely on (because they do not have the means to supply them directly, even though they could) to help them. Crisis centres have come into being from facilities that were shut, the emergency services, even though they responded quickly, are being cut to the bone. Grenfell is in the richest borough in the country run by a Tory council, how dare anyone question the need to politicise this.
Not only that but there are questions to be asked of those Tory scumbags (tautological, I know) who repeatedly block any and all efforts to make housing safe never mind habitable. It was Gavin Barswell, a housing minister who recently lost his seat now invited back into umber ten by Theresa May, who sat on a report dealing with exactly the issue at hand. The community in that tower repeatedly entreated the authorities to address their concerns and were bullied as a result. That is class war right there, by the way.
Then there are ghouls such as the appalling inhuman cunt, Philip Davies, inexplicably voted in by the capitalist class of Shipley (who no doubt profit from his position, which says it all really). A serial proponent of the filibuster, he has form shutting down discussion. This tells you all you need to know about the modern Tory: he's so arrogant that he's unwilling to even discuss an issue that he has to shut it down completely.
No doubt during the election you will have been told how important it is to vote. That's great. But the reality is that the Tories don't believe that, when you have venal scum like Davies abusing the mechanics of legislature to shut down the discourse without allowing for even others to talk never mind a vote.
And he did this on the very topic of law making that would compel landlords (such as the class he represents) to make housing fit for habitation. An example of which would be to ensure that the properties used in building a high rise aren't likely to turn a home for families into a hellscape.
He, like the rest of his part, like the rest of those corporate interests, like the entire capitalist landlord class, are culpable. They ALL have blood on their hands.
Homes are for a community, not for profit.
David Lammy, Labour MP, talks about a charge of corporate manslaughter. That doesn't go far enough and, while I agree there should be accountability (of the swinging from the rope kind). But that cannot be allowed to stop at the door of whatever contractor is hung out to dry by the furtive masters of the capitalist class. It must encompass the entirety of the British capitalist system - and that can be an example tot he rest of the world. No pasaran.
Tuesday, 6 June 2017
Stepping Out 6
Didn't post after last week, which was stupid, as now I have to remember why I wasn't impressed afterwards.
I think it was because in so many ways this kind of mental health support feels like gaslighting. Previously he had asserted strongly I have social phobia, getting me to fill in a qustionaire. Next thing he's telling me that's not the case in such a way that I feel I've had my time wasted. I don't think that I don't have a degree of it either, but because I manage to do a thing, such as go to an increasingly racist* support place (1in4, weston super mare), therefore all the inner struggle involved in achieving that counts for nothing. That isn't helpful at all.
So today's appointment isn't happening. In fact neither is next week's - they tell me this quite matter of factly. It's as if the support isn't needed, and this is just a minor inconvenience. Oh there's nothing in the diary for next week so no appointment. It's all very clerical and not at all helpful. At least I don't have to fuss about with those stupid questionnaires for another two weeks.
To be completely honest, where is the support? I mean, the guy I talk to seems like a nice guy; I have no personal beef with him, but he hasn't actually offered any mechanism or scheme of a supportive nature at all. Other than talk to the people I've already talked to (the ASD team, for instance) he's done nothing, and talking to those people has largely been a waste of time: what is the point of talking to the liars at the Asperger service if you aren't going to accept me telling you they lied? That's what I mean by gaslighting; he cannot accept my side of the story, and why not? Professional pride? How does that help me?
Quite honestly the whole thing is pointless. He doesn't even work for Positive Step, the people who have imposed themselves into the support structure available to patients. They have subcontracted out to a different social enterprise (they all have Step in the name and seem to be primarily a housing association or something). Why? Does PS not have enough skilled staff to actually do the job? Isn't it fundamentally dishonest to compel doctors to refer patients to them and then not actually provide patients with care or support? This is the new normal. An example as to why this is an issue is that, if I could be seen by 'proper' support services (ie the NHS), then I could get them to sign off on a bus pass that would make it a lot easier to get around - which is something my 'wellness advisor' agrees with. Last he said he was going to ask my GP about referring me to such people, something I've already done myself weeks ago but nothing seems to have come of it.
These services, ostensibly intended to support people, are in the way of doing just that.
*Disappointingly last week the few people there started talking about 'foreigners' in the usual Daily Mail way. I get that people have issues with immigration, but to fall for the divide and rule rhetoric of the right wing media is to blame the symptom not the cause. They are not our enemy, we should be allying with them to smash the capitalists who's policies set us against each other in competition for what we are told, but aren't, scant resources.
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