Mentally ill people to get 'job coach' visits...

[InArduisFouette]

Sorry, but .

indeed

i'm a Calibri girl for my CV , having flirted with Gill sans in the past ( but not wanting to look too much like Nigel Gresley ... ) serif fonts are apparently harder to read than Sans serif

 

[InArduisFouette]

Speaking as a dyslexic, I find OpenDyslexic harder to read than most normal fonts. Comic sans is no easier or harder, but well, it's Comic fucking sans.

The most important thing for me is white space, large blocks of text are just unreadable. Background colour can help as well, things with less glare are easier to read.

how do you find Calibi / Gill sans ( as used by the pre WW2 LNER) / Johnston ( the London Undergrounf font ) ?

 

[emanymton]

how do you find Calibi / Gill sans ( as used by the pre WW2 LNER) / Johnston ( the London Undergrounf font ) ?

Calibi is fine, Gills sans looks like it would be fine, but to my knowledge never read much using it.

 

[Lotte]

<sigh> Having had a lot of experience around mentally ill people being in hospital, from a personal and (to a lesser extent) professional perspective, I cannot think of anything more obviously abusive and counterproductive than this idea.

Quite apart from the inappropriateness of sending lay people into a psychiatric unit, whose occupants are very likely to react with "Oh, so I can't get any help for my disorder, but there are resources to push me into a job that I probably won't be able to stick for long". And, having encountered some of the kind of people likely to end up doing this work, I strongly suspect that they'll quite possibly undo any good work that might (ideally, ha!) be being done therapeutically.

If the Government REALLY wanted to do something around mental health and work, the only way to do it is to start by resourcing the MH system properly. Too many people end up in hospital after years of the can being kicked down the road, inept and clumsy handling of patients, and a chronic lack of resources to deal with early interventions. Many of them feel betrayed and let down...so having someone breeze in and briskly suggest they write a CV or something is going to go down like a bucket of cold sick. Which, no doubt, will go down on the paperwork as "uncooperative - withdraw benefits".

I really cannot understand how our governments, of whatever stripe, can be so comprehensively ignorant of what needs to be done to improve mental healthcare, or the benefits doing that would have. I suspect it's largely because it would be a long-term project (plenty of those people in acute units will have had difficulties for YEARS), and they're only interested in Quick Wins.

It's obscene.

It took me two years to get seen on the NHS and during that time, I self-harmed a lot and had at least two suicide attempts.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Speaking as a dyslexic, I find OpenDyslexic harder to read than most normal fonts. Comic sans is no easier or harder, but well, it's Comic fucking sans.

But I'll get a bollocking if I don't use OpenDyslexic. On a pale yellow background. Although I'm aware that different people do better with different colours; hence coloured glasses, coloured overlays etc which are always person-specific and not one-size-fits-all.

 

[emanymton]

But I'll get a bollocking if I don't use OpenDyslexic. On a pale yellow background. Although I'm aware that different people do better with different colours; hence coloured glasses, coloured overlays etc which are always person-specific and not one-size-fits-all.

Pale blue is my colour, but for me at least pretty much anything is better than white so pale yellow is probably fine.

 

[weltweit]

Long time ago when job hunting I forget what font I used but I printed my CV on orange paper. When I used to phone to follow up and get feedback they used usually to tell me, we got loads of CVs to which I would respond but mine is orange and there it would be standing out in their in tray easy to find

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

SO I mentioned this on a Maudsley site yesterday and they do have work coach coming in but that is for the patients there who want to speak to them as they would like to work once discharged, but I doubt a Labour plan would understand the voluntarily part of it.

 

[PR1Berske]

I'll use this thread as it's related. DWP to create a "youth guarantee" and to 'disallow' any youth from not being in education or training.

From the Telegraph

Dominic Penna Political Correspondent
18 November 2024 10:46am GMT

Young unemployed people must take up training or face having their benefits cut under plans being drawn up by the Work and Pensions Secretary.

Liz Kendall has promised to introduce a “Youth Guarantee” that will aim to increase opportunities for adults aged 18 to 21.

Local authorities will offer support to all unemployed people in this group to help them find employment or education.

But The Times reported that Ms Kendall “will not allow” young adults not to be in some form of education, employment, or training, and will strip benefits from those who do not take up offers of support.

A government source told the newspaper that the proposals would usher in “the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation”. The source said: “Conditionality is a fundamental principle of the social security system and has always existed. That’s not going to change.”

The Prime Minister’s official deputy spokesman downplayed suggestions the policy could punish care leavers who could be left without any income if stripped of their benefits.

“Our focus is on making sure we get people into work and that should be a priority,” the spokesman said. “We will approach this in a balanced way and no doubt the department in preparing this will be alive to these issues. The priority is ensuring that we have a system in place that is tackling inactivity.”

Some 874,000 young people are Not in Education, Employment or Training (Neet), according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figures represent a rise of almost 75,000 on the previous year, while 41,000 more people aged 18 to 21 are now unemployed than before the pandemic.

Before the general election, Labour promised to introduce “a new Youth Guarantee which will make sure young people are either earning or learning”.

The party said it stood ready to take “the tough action necessary” to boost the career prospects of young people.

The Youth Guarantee scheme will place an added emphasis on giving power to councils and mayors, shifting power away from Whitehall to deliver joined-up plans.

These will bring together work, health and skills resources to tackle economic inactivity, which the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has made one of its top priorities.

Britain’s welfare bill has soared in recent years amid a surge in claims for mental health conditions, meaning one in 10 adults of working age are now on sickness benefits.

 

[Eric Jarvis]

On the subject. I have been informed by somebody in Lambeth Hospital that there is a dearth of things for patients to do. Such as an acute ward with one pack of cards and a single jigsaw puzzle to keep 25 patients occupied. How about we give them board games instead of DWP job coaches. Cheaper and likely to be way more useful.

 

[existentialist]

On the subject. I have been informed by somebody in Lambeth Hospital that there is a dearth of things for patients to do. Such as an acute ward with one pack of cards and a single jigsaw puzzle to keep 25 patients occupied. How about we give them board games instead of DWP job coaches. Cheaper and likely to be way more useful.

No to mention that this is what occupational therapists are for - no doubt, some money-saving exercise has dispensed with them.

 

[Eric Jarvis]

No to mention that this is what occupational therapists are for - no doubt, some money-saving exercise has dispensed with them.

They appear to exist but be a scarce resource with pretty much zero access to a budget.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

I'd love some job coaching because I know I'm terrible at it but they'll never provide it for autistic people because this country is run by cunts who don't want anyone to get anything for "free".

 

[MickiQ]

They appear to exist but be a scarce resource with pretty much zero access to a budget.

Can't waste money on people who aren't being productive perish the very thought.

 

[Eric Jarvis]

Can't waste money on people who aren't being productive perish the very thought.

Exactly. "Why aren't they just locked in their rooms and tranked up until they are practically comatose like in the good old days?"

 

[existentialist]

Exactly. "Why aren't they just locked in their rooms and tranked up until they are practically comatose like in the good old days?"

Locking people up in rooms is likely to be more expensive, staff costs-wise. This is me being cynical, btw

 

[Plumdaff]

Most mental health occupational therapists I know are working in generic roles in the community. The days of having an inpatient budget to cover OT, activities officers, music and art therapy etc are long gone. It's a fight to have the budget for a safe level of nursing staff, let alone anyone else.