People on long-term sick leave in England to be offered therapeutic recreation

Sly Saint

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Life coaches and running clubs will be recommended to those on long-term sickness leave under government plans to get people back to work.

Ministers are to launch a scheme to help reduce the numbers signed off sick in England. There are 2.2 million people claiming universal credit with no work requirements. The number of workers taking sick leave has hit a 10-year high.

Jobcentres will be encouraged to refer people for advice and therapeutic recreation, including gardening clubs.

Doctors, employers, jobcentres, social workers and charities will be encouraged to suggest therapy and life coaching under plans to create a national occupational health service and reduce the number of people GPs sign off from work.

Community activities such as singing, cooking or gardening clubs will also be offered through NHS “social prescribing” initiatives.
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People on long-term sick leave in England to be offered therapeutic recreation (msn.com)
 
I saw that, but I was too depressed to post it!

I was involved in a couple of projects where social prescribing helped some people who were struggling with their mental health, but it was important they wanted to do it and that it came at the right time for them. If people are pressured into schemes like this before they feel able to engage, there's a risk of reinforcing symptoms instead of helping with them.

I wonder if Jobcentres will be able to design something sensitive enough?

(I may not be wondering about this for long.)
 
I hate the idea of voluntary groups of singers, walkers, gardeners etc being swamped with people who have no interest in doing the activity but are being forced to do it under threat of losing their financial support. I can imagine groups collapsing under the pressure.

I agree, Kitty, it can be helpful for some people with mental health problems such as depression or anxiety, but needs to be entirely their choice, not foisted on them. And if there are people in a group on prescription with the severer end of mental health problems the leaders surely need to be aware and able to be unobtrusively supportive.
 
Trish said:
I agree, Kitty, it can be helpful for some people with mental health problems such as depression or anxiety, but needs to be entirely their choice, not foisted on them.
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The projects I mentioned were offered as healthcare, it was nothing to do with DWP. There was a menu of options to pick from, and no one was under any pressure to take part. Also, it was offered to people who were recovering, and I think that was really important. I know a couple of folk who suffer with depression, and there are times when they wouldn't be able to engage at all.

Participants in group like this have to be ready to step out of the front door and be around people they don't know—it's not therapy, it's about rebuilding confidence and connections. The trouble with projects like this is that they start out as good ideas to help people with their recovery, but then get seized on by politicians as a treatment in themselves. They're not, and they can't be.
 
I'd consider assisted dodo farming, as long as someone else dug the holes (to plant the eggs in) and took care of the irrigation.

I suspect that come time to harvest to dodos I may have lost interest, depending on how long it takes to grow a dodo, or I'd need pretty good noise cancelling headphones to remove all the frantic clucking as they dug themselves out and went on a hunt for a pond/lake/ocean (whatever dodos use to clean themselves after hatching before going on a hunt for several of the no remaining British Rail pork pies I assume they eat).
 
Trish said:
I hate the idea of voluntary groups of singers, walkers, gardeners etc being swamped with people who have no interest in doing the activity but are being forced to do it under threat of losing their financial support. I can imagine groups collapsing under the pressure.
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This is why the military generally don't like conscription.
 
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