Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts

Theresa May in The Crisis From Our Minds

It may sound like a "B" list movie from the 1950's but Mrs May is our next Prime Minister and whilst every other blog is pondering how she will face Brexit or the Tax dodging of whichever evil corporation we despise this season, I'm curious how she will face the mental health crisis.

In essence, do we have reason to hope things can get better?

Her work history is actually quite impressive. She has served in several Cabinets (the main operating committee of the Government) and Shadow Cabinets (the main opposition's version). At one point she was Chair of the Conservative Party and described as a one-nation liberal conservative. Aside from her work as Minister for Women and Equality and is now the longest serving Home Secretary in UK history. To compare our Government to a real-world business, this means she has been a senior executive who actually does the work the CEO boasts about at your annual conference. If I'm starting to sound rather Pro-May its because I'm slowly convincing myself with all the more research I do.
Anne Perkins of The Guardian observed that "she'll be nobody's stooge"
However, actions can speak louder than words and some actions do not reflect well, especially in hindsight.
Perhaps like me, you had forgotten the pet cat? I'm not referring to Larry the Chief Mouser at Downing Street but instead the cat which belonged to a man facing deportation. It brought to attention the quote in the adjacent picture that in summary, this gentlemen was not deported because he owned a cat. This later turned out to be a whisker or two from the truth. Said man was in a real long-term relationship here in the UK and the cat was just one piece of evidence in said tribunal.

Mrs May, through her husband, has links with security firm G4S which also gained some large sub-contracts from HM Government and Police forces during her time as Home Secretary. At one point the Police Federation described her as a 'Bully' with the curious 'unnamed sources' saying she was selling our Police to Serco; however this was after she demanded they make reforms in the wake of scandals such as Stephen Lawrence and cut the extreme high pay for the 'union' leaders out of the tax pocket.

Just a week ago the National Audit Office published a pretty bad report regarding a 'detention centre' called Yarl's Wood. The report criticised  Theresa May’s Home Office and NHS England who gave to Serco and G4S contracts to run Yarl’s Wood’s residential and health services which ‘did not initially meet the needs of the vulnerable population detained there’

AND THERE IS MORE! However, we all have bad stains in our past. I'm assuming you've read some past posts of my blog so you've seen my trials and tribulations to no end! Perhaps I should focus on how far we have come? A survey by Office for National Statistics in 2007 showed that 22% of people surveyed thought that the mentally ill were “a burden on society”. Shocking but in 9 years alot has changed and some of the seeds seem to be from Mrs May.

In 2012, our Prime Minister was the Home Secretary and she widened the laws on Domestic Violence. Previously it had felt rather cold and logical basing justice on physical damage but now "mental torment" is taken into account. Controlling and Bullying may not be physical but is rightly seen to cause harm now in the eyes of the court.
Read my latest Huffington Post article!

In the last few days, Theresa May has promised to put real workers on the boards of big business to ensure they start working for employees and not just shareholders. Given my personal, harrowing experience with workplace discrimination, this comes to me with a massive glimmer of hope.

Over the past year £15 million has been allocated to provide medical care for those in mental health need who previously would of been held in a Police cell. Promising this action in 2014, Theresa said "Most members of the public won’t think of the police in relation to people with mental health needs ... Unless you have done something wrong, or been a victim of crime, you won’t expect to come across a police officer. So imagine what it is like for the thousands of people with mental health problems, learning disabilities or other vulnerabilities who regularly encounter the police" I find it slightly scary to say but true to her word, change is slowly happening. In February this year Mrs May banned Police cells being used as a 'place of safety' for all Under 18s. In 2013 a report found that mental health took up 20% of the Police's time and it actually looks like Mrs May is getting the Police back to fighting crime and us, the patients, into some healthcare situation instead of a cell. Along with Karen Bradly (Minister for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime) and  Alistair Burt (Minister for Mental Health) the use of Police cells for holding mental health patients is down 50%.between 2011 and 2015.
Too often and for far too long, vulnerable people experiencing a mental health crisis who have committed no crime have found themselves in a police cell because there is nowhere else to go. - Karen Brady MP
This isn't an easy battle to win.

 As a recent survey from the Youth Health Parliament shows, patients are desperate for earlier intervention with more face-to-face help, there is a still an uphill struggle. My own personal struggle reflects the bigger mental health crisis but I think Theresa May has the tools and the willpower to bring real positive change to the face of mental health and the male suicide crisis. I think we have reason to be optimistic...

If you suffer from mental health problems, there's too often not enough help to hand.              - Theresa May MP
Mrs May....
Some children wait 32 weeks for mental health treatment whilst suicide is the biggest killer of men. You might only have a few years but I think this is our best chance to save our lives. It's Time to Change and you can help us do it.

As always thank you for reading and sharing my blog - and even browsing my past posts on my own first hand experience with mental health. Every view and share really helps fight the stigma and spread understanding. xx Below is some of my social media highlights - please enjoy and share :)
Thanks again! Matt xx








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Trying to Accept I Can't Solve Things I Can Solve

I think I'm a bit of a lazy person but my Psychologist disagrees. I could have curled up and hidden myself with the events of last October but instead I used what energy I could muster to fight. Rather than glue myself to a TV, which I did to some extent, I wrote this blog. At times I've set goals on how many YouTube videos to produce as well as pushed myself to be active in the community with continually improving the drama club and improving myself through my weekly radio show and through my work with Time To Change.

I hate inequality. One of the big motivators for me writing this blog is that no one should have to go through what I did either as a child when I was the sole carer for my alcoholic mother but also for the horrible treatment I've received because of my disability. And yes, my mental health condition is a disability - I didn't realise it at first but as I shared on this Huffington Post article there are quite a lot of us out there with mental health issues that affect our quality of life.


Rather than going to celebrate a very successful summer show, I ended up feeling really low. It was all because the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lanes of the M40 were closed. For a few miles overhead signs had indicated the lanes were closed with arrows indicating that lane to merge into the next lane until the red X appeared. I was in lane 1. I was stationary only to discover that it was because all manner of vehicles were storming down the carriageway, through the red X signs and then barging into lane 1. Worryingly people seem oblivious that passing a Red X is a criminal offence. It should cost you 6 points on your license and a £60 fixed fine. Yet no one, as far as I can see, is enforcing it. Enforcing it, would pay for itself and generate extra funds for 'more bobbies on the beat' as well as encouraging safer use of our roads.

As you may have seen from past posts here, I am a lollipop man and I witness all sorts of behaviour on the roads. There was a time when I reported every vehicle I saw that failed to stop when signalled to do so or where the driver was clearly on their phone. What I find infuriating is that I can see the solution to this but I cannot do it or use it. How simple would it be to have a camera that I then edit the footage for each offence and auto-generate a warning letter or fine, Such a system much exists or even if I have to do it manually, it will still be worth it. "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next". Does something hideous have to happen before we will take action and actually bring justice on those behaving likes twonks?

I cannot go into much detail about my particular incident on the crossing but to say I signalled a minibus to stop and steadily and safely it did. Within seconds I had spotted the vehicle inches from my back and was shocked to hear the driver hurling abuse at me including calling me "suicidal" and "mental". I get that the Police are overstretched but I cannot see that anything is being done. Again, I'm left with an unsupported authority with people trying to maim or kill me.

I guess my fear is that if people are not penalised for their selfish and deadly behaviour, whether it is hitting me on the crossing or hitting a Road Engineer in a closed line, then said behaviour will spread. A "they didn't get told off and it is a quicker so I'll copy" mentality. Slowly the hole level of driving is slowly dropping. Admit it, you've seen it with people on their phones texting or calling with one or no hands on the steering wheel. All it takes is an excited child into the road or a tiny sideways drift on to the kerb and people will die.

I felt really hurt and I will take this opportunity to say a huge thank you and well done to the call handler at the Police and the local Gent from the Residents Association who talked it through with me and helped me calm down and accept what had happened.

In some ways these are not situations I can resolve but they do passionately make me feel that I have viable solutions, where a CCTV operator could even fund itself and the warning letters it would mostly send. Yet, I am trapped watching things slowly get worse which combined with the threat of someone either getting out and killing me or just running me down in their van is more stress than it is worth.

I've spoken this through with my Psychologist and it seems to resonate with my unequal or unjust treatment in my pas discrimination and even with the way I feel toward my now-dead mother. I have to find ways to accept that I cannot make the changes I feel are needed and I have to accept I can do only what I can do - which is fine for minor issues but not for ones where people are going to die.

Still, I guess this isn't my biggest worry. Given I've never held, but I am entitled to, a UK passport perhaps I should be worried 'they' will try to deport me on my Swiss one. Weirder things have happened. As mentioned last week, mental illness is like a marathon and the next stage is realising this isn't something I can change correctly overnight. Just like my tattoo, this could be the end but the story is ongoing.

Somethings I can solve and don't need stressing over as I can solve them later but these issues feel like life or death yet I cannot fix it. Part of me doesn't want to 'accept' that.

How do you accept 'solveable' issues out of your control? How does Brexit affect you and your mental health? Tips or tricks for me? Please share and Comment :)






 
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#mentalhealth #discrimination #disabilities 🎭 #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #medicatedandmighty #BPD #depression #blogger #london 🇨🇭🇬🇧 #mind #stigma #timetochange #timetotalk #imnotashamed #sicknotweak #InTheMind #endthestigma #eupd #ExploreMH
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Budget Day 2016: Save our NHS. Sack Mr Hunt.

I'm a  blogger with 

Borderline Personality Disorder  

after surviving suicide and stigma,

 a Member of ,

 an adult child of a dead alcoholic,

an amateur Radio DJ, actor and a panto Dame. 

Over the past year I have been brutally honest with my battles with my mind, money and with employment. An element of my battle will of course be my childhood, being the sole carer of an alcoholic mother who then died from it, however all of this was amplified by 21st century life and trying to contend with an ever growing workload. Its no surprise that in the end I snapped. As I've touched upon in past blogs, in June 2015 I tried to kill myself. I held on for three more months until the wheels finally failed and I've been off work ever since.

 Click here for last week's blog 

We live in a country that at times appears to be peeking its head out of the recession. We are the 5th largest economy in the world. In the lead up to the recessions, companies cut back by letting good staff go and trimming services. Over the past couple of years as business started to return, or was found in new ways, agency staff were used as a stop gap or just disposable staff. These corporations are driven by profit so having fewer staff doing more work is perfect. It is perfect for them.

In the UK and the EU there are laws regarding how long people can work without a break or how many hours they must have of rest between shifts. This makes perfect sense because the last thing anyone wants is for a tired pilot to doze off and destroy Croydon or Coventry. Regulated breaks should prevent any lorry drivers from destroying a flyover and bringing the M25 or M62 with the economy reliant on it to a bloody halt. So why is it acceptable to take an overstretched NHS and drag it out even thinner into a forced 24 hour 7 day service. Would you really want an exhausted doctor, working several 12 hour shifts a week, looking after you?
"Junior doctors asked for contract renegotiations four years ago because they felt their current rotas were unsafe, with large rota gaps in the most stressful specialties that provide urgent and emergency care.  Hunt claims the NHS must learn from the airline industry, but no pilot would be allowed to work these rotas, and no airline would ignore the safety concerns of 55,000 pilots"  -  Dr Phil Hammond
Our NHS is the envy of healthcare systems around the world yet rather than supporting a successful yet buckling system we have Jeremy Hunt demoralising our vital NHS workforce, pushing them and therefore NHS services even further with even fewer funds. Staff are under pressure and breaking today - Mr Hunt's threats just crush our NHS even more. Just like my story, NHS staff (especially Junior Doctors) are falling from their mental and physical health because of Hunt's reign. Campaigns like MIND's #TakeOffTheTape encourage us all to fight stigma and openly talk about about minds and mental health; what is the point if there is nothing left of the NHS to support us?

We live in a country where more teenagers are self-harming than ever. We live in a country where the biggest killer of men is not guns, cars or cancer but suicide (men under 50, ONS). In the US, more people die from suicide than murder. Whilst UK suicide rates for women has hovered around the 5 per 100,000 figure, the male rate continues to climb from 17.4 per 100,000 in 2006 to 19 men per 100,000 in 2013. In short in the UK, one person ends their own life every TWO hours.
Click here to read my article about how
the NHS helped me survive suicide

How can we expect the NHS to save us and help solve our current mental health crisis when it is limping along with knackered ill staff?

Today is Budget Day. Rather than pledging more money in targeted ways to help combat those frightening statistics, encourage more people into healthcare and programmes to encourage mental and physical health well being (especially by employers) the theme seems to be more cuts like those big corporations chasing profitability.

In the end of 2015 I applied for support from welfare system. Personal Independence Payment, which replaced Disability Living Allowance. As I've covered in my articles for Huffington Post before, my condition is covered as a disability under the Equality Act, yet I am seeing people which variations of my condition and situation be refused that support. My income at the time of hitting publish is zero. The little I am asking for in support is to help me cover my mortgage and help me survive so I can keep up my fight and find some work in between. Last week I had my physical assessment which was purely to reiterate what my NHS GP and my NHS psychologists have told them but I am scared that despite paying my fair share into the system, I will get no support out. Something which regular readers of my blog who have seen my anxiety and debt grow, know is terrifying prospect.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said that Mr Hunt was "running the NHS into the ground". This week a Select Committee heard how NHS England is facing a £22bn black hole with a reliance on agency staff. According to Ipsos Mori, over 65% of the British public, including myself, continue to support a Junior Doctors strike. That is a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Hunt.

Dr Mark Porter of the British Medical Association said  Wednesday’s budget should be used to stop the NHS heading to “financial ruin”.

Is it my mental illness or am I seeing a pattern? Tampons are still taxed as non-essential yet spare aviation parts are VAT free. Around £3bn contracts for NHS services are now in private sector and just last week this Conservative government forced through a cut to cripple those with disabilities who need benefit support the most.

Whichever voting booth you have the chance to attend, I beg you consider this blog post (and have a look at my past too!). Please ensure your vote is for a council, MP and ultimately a Government who will support our NHS and therefore support us, the people, in our mental and physical health as we try to combat our suicide crisis. Your MP and your council work for you, elected by you, yet given the corporate behaviour we've seen I am petrified they forget this.

Organisations such as #ZeroSuicide think that if we all work together we can prevent every suicide, reducing the rate to zero. The people of our isle are not cheap nor are we disposable. We work hard and are proud of an NHS which does an amazing job to catch us when we fall and therefore keeps our economy in better position for it. When staff are stretch to breaking point, overworked and uncared for, the NHS and what remains of our welfare system tries to hold us but why aren't those responsible, big corporations and Mr Hunt himself, paying for the damage they cause? If we want to keep saving lives and save more, in terms of the suicide crisis but mental health and physical health as a whole, then we need to fight, support our Junior Doctors and save our NHS.

George, David and Jeremy... This is your chance to win the hearts and minds of the British public but also save the NHS and save lives - including mine.

_____________________________________________________
Thank you for reading and sharing my blog as always. It was a bit of a ranty essay this week but it really does worry me that the NHS which keeps me functioning is being destroyed and dismantled and it isn't for the benefit of the common man; unless the common man owns billion dollar healthcare companies!

 Last week I did have my PIP assessment which went quite well. As I've mentioned before, a huge thank you to my friends and family who have kept me going these past few months and hopefully with the few different projects on the horizon; there is hope. Meanwhile, I end on a song.

 Thank you for reading - please to have a browse of the past few posts and remember to share my blog and website on your social media. Ly xx







Check out more quotes on my #mentalhealth blog : mattstreuli.blogspot.co.uk
Posted by MattStreuli.uk - Mental Health Aware on Friday, 11 March 2016


A video posted by Matthew E Streuli (@matthewstreuli) on




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Blowing Anxiety Away - Distress Acceptance

Last week, we discovered Distress Intolerance and through your feedback we can again highlight that mental health is more of a spectrum. Many of you said that you use the different types of avoidance and numbing to deal with difficult or ‘distressing’ situations and emotions. The last time you suffered grief from the loss of a loved one or an end in a relationship, did you use avoidance and numbing techniques? Got Drunk? Watched a favourite film?
More proof that we all have mental health, just different levels at different times. It is a spectrum.

This week, we look at how to accept distress and pain. Kind of…

Also, Red bull Tropical is the best thing since sliced bread. I am not being paid to say that but if they would like to send me a free tray or two, I wouldn’t say no… :P #worthatry

Before me move on to this week’s group therapy I wanted to explore some politics. I’ve been rather light on Politics since the General Election but I wanted to explore an article by Jon Henley in The Guardian newspaper. In the article he reports on a survey carried out by the newspaper: 
A Guardian website survey received more than 1,200 responses from European citizens, a large majority of whom were in the process of changing nationality or citizenship, or considering doing so. Many expressed concern that without dual nationality, an “out” vote in Britain’s membership referendum could make life as an EU citizen in the UK, or as a UK citizen in the EU, far more problematic. 
 My maternal heritage is English/British but my paternal side is Swiss. At this time I only hold a Swiss Passport and ID card despite the fact I have only ever lived and worked in the UK – just like my Father. My Father, I believe, is not entitled to a UK passport as his parents were Swiss, but I do have dual nationality. Is it worth me going through the forms and interviews to get a UK passport? As we head towards our referendum on this topic, I would ask you read his article and look at what we (the UK) will lose by leaving the EU.
 “It doesn’t feel great, to be honest,” she (a Danish national resident in the UK for many years) said. “Paying all that money to join a club you’re already a member of, that you enjoy all the benefits of, and that feels like it’s not super-keen to have you. I thought I’d already done all I had to do, but no.” 
AD = Sign up to HELLOFRESH and get £20 off your first order - https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/?c=2RHEYL 

This week we looked at Distress Acceptance. I am sceptical person. I’m normally the pessimist but every step of my mental health journey I’ve try to enter with a “what have I got to lose” and “I’ll try anything once” level of optimism. Each week I’ve left learning or discovering something and with something tangible to apply to myself or my programming or just to life. This week I feel frustrated at what feels a bit ‘arty farty’ and hippy. This week, we learnt that we have to accept how we feel. This week, we need to work on observing how we feel and letting it pass into mindfulness.

Imagine a sky and each cloud is that emotion or distressing feeling. Mindfulness, with practise and patience, does work. I have used it the past week to help separate myself from the pit of emotions I fester in. For instance, when something at work angers or frustrates me that could trigger my plunge into the pit of my emotions where it festers into all those self-loathing emotions I’ve written about before. Yet with mindfulness, I disconnect from that pit and lock myself into the here and now before slowing coming back to reality. It works. The bit I feel wound up about is adding in observing our emotions. Our homework is to write a script and so I will share it with you. Imagine it as a To-Do list or ‘Yellow Alert’ programme for when something triggers or starts to distress you. Imagine looking from the top of a hill. The blue sky and the white clouds. Each cloud is an emotion. As the cloud passes we follow our scripts.

 Name the cloud; what do we feel?. ¬ Angry  
Shape the cloud: What does it feel like? My shoulders are tense. I feel pressure . 
Blow; watch the cloud go. 
Focus on that breath… come back to the present.

Next Cloud…
A different emotion or one that is linked or caused by the first?

It's Worry and Anxiety, my head hurts and my leg shakes or bounces.
Blow… watch the cloud and the emotion go.

Yep. Hippy arty farty.

 I understand that in the moment, observing and understanding the emotion and detaching it from us can be quite therapeutic. It feels quite releasing and relaxing and certainly does prevent the plunge in my cycle back to the bottom of my depressive pit which triggers all the avoidance, numbing and self-harming we discussed in the last post. BUT, when you open your eyes and go back to the real world, the problem is still there. That is my problem. It is not solving the problem that triggered the emotions so you’ve actually just postponed the dealing of the problem. When I go back to work, the stress or the email is still there. When I go home the mess of a lonely life I lead is still there.

Perhaps I am being too harsh. Perhaps I should try it.

 The worst triggers for me feel like the unexpected incidents or confrontations and not the planned events – if anything the more warning the more I am prepared and the happier I am. That is the different between worry and panic. I worry about things that may or may not happen that are out of my control. I also panic when the unexpected happens. But I am not too worried about the expected – even if it is a battle with someone– because I can be prepared.

Why don’t you try it? Next time you feel angry, anxious or annoyed just Name the Cloud, Shape the Cloud and blow it away. Then focus on that breath to bring you back to today.

I’ll try it. But I’m already would up that when I open my eyes, after making my puffy white clouds, the shit will still be all over the fan. This doesn’t prevent the feelings nor does it solve or prevent the problem. Get on with it.

I worry a lot; rather than naming clouds isn’t it a better use of my time to try and solve my worries before the shit hits the fan?



Generally group sessions do help but its like doing Sex Ed at school…
 the theory in class is OK but in the real world its kinda different. :)
 

 xx My last post had over 220 views in less than a week.
 Thank you for your support and please keep sharing my blog and retweeting xxx



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April's BONUS Post!

Hello and welcome to this bonus level on my blog!

You get brownie points for reading all my posts. Please do follow me on Twitter (@MattStreuli) so you get to see the latest blogs first as well as other silly stuff I do on YouTube and podcasts.

The feedback (shout-out to Kathryn and Eli!) I've had so far has been fantastic and I want to thank you all very much for reading my blog. It feels like you have accepted me as person and whilst we might not always agree on my views or content you are willing to hear it/see it and engage with it. This is something I would love to encourage. So tweet me?

Are we all mentally ill? (This is one of my most read blogs THANK YOU!!)
Is it only fair to wind up internet trolls like Michelle Ben? (Most read comedy blog!)
Will showing young teens the consequences of violence through visits to a Concentration Camp or Oradour-sur-Glane deter them from romantic view of violent modern media portrays?
What do you think of the mental health services on the NHS?
Have you had similar experiences to me and have advice or is my blog helping you?
and my latest post: How can we engage more young people and get them to vote? Isn't #GE2015 the biggest reality show ever? After all; Who Wins? You Decide?

To finish this special below are some pictures of me as requested by Eli, a Dutch friend.



Guten Tag! :)

DONT FORGET TO TWEET ME AND COMMENT BELOW!! :)




Update : 12th April
I've restarted self harming. #bipolar







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