Do you want to discuss boring politics? (33 Viewers)

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Good therapists are like gold dust and the NHS doesn’t exactly attract them in the first place.
My actual assessment was done by someone from MIND who was actually pretty good but he was straight up and said if you can afford it go private because you'll be waiting forever on the NHS and then you'll see someone that has far to big a caseload to be able to work effectively.

He told me what qualifications I should look for in a therapist that would particularly suit my situation. There was not a single one in Cov even if you go private. There was one in Kenilworth and one in Warwick, both over £200 for a 50 minute session.

But this is the same story with pretty much everything. If its not something the GP can send you away with a pill for you're fucked. I first went to my GP with concerns about not being able to lose weight after a change in meds in 2010, I finally got to see a specialist at Walsgrave at the start of March. After an assessment that told me stress was the underlying cause, and that I should probably already be dead, I was referred on for specialist treatment, or rather I was put on a years long waiting list. Again the advice was if you afford it go private because you'll be waiting forever.
 

Nick

Administrator
My actual assessment was done by someone from MIND who was actually pretty good but he was straight up and said if you can afford it go private because you'll be waiting forever on the NHS and then you'll see someone that has far to big a caseload to be able to work effectively.

He told me what qualifications I should look for in a therapist that would particularly suit my situation. There was not a single one in Cov even if you go private. There was one in Kenilworth and one in Warwick, both over £200 for a 50 minute session.

But this is the same story with pretty much everything. If its not something the GP can send you away with a pill for you're fucked. I first went to my GP with concerns about not being able to lose weight after a change in meds in 2010, I finally got to see a specialist at Walsgrave at the start of March. After an assessment that told me stress was the underlying cause, and that I should probably already be dead, I was referred on for specialist treatment, or rather I was put on a years long waiting list. Again the advice was if you afford it go private because you'll be waiting forever.
There are decent directory sites with therapists.

You can get sessions around 50-60 an hour.

With teams and zoom it opens up the options a lot more as well and means you aren't limited to location. Even if they are a bit further away you can always go to meet them for a couple of sessions then do it remotely.
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member
There are decent directory sites with therapists.

You can get sessions around 50-60 an hour now as well.

I was going to say that there are a lot specialising in various areas. I have never even seen any at £200 an hour

My daughter was given 12 sessions by the NHS and got them within 6 weeks of initial referral. She is an adult and it was very straightforward.
 

Ccfcisparks

Well-Known Member
There are decent directory sites with therapists.

You can get sessions around 50-60 an hour now as well.
Yep if you are willing to go private it can be relatively affordable.

50 ish quid for talking therapy with a therapist or 100 quid with a psychiatrist
 

Grendel

Well-Known Member

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Counselling, no. Psychiatrists, definitely that much.
As I said I was given very specific requirements for someone who would match my needs. Not a run of the mill therapist, a specialist psychiatrist, hence my comment that there's not a single person practicing in Cov that meets the requirements.
 

Nick

Administrator
As I said I was given very specific requirements for someone who would match my needs. Not a run of the mill therapist, a specialist psychiatrist, hence my comment that there's not a single person practicing in Cov that meets the requirements.

Have a look for online sessions, doesn't even have to be in this country.

I looked at all the sites like better help and they are a rip off.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Yep if you are willing to go private it can be relatively affordable.

50 ish quid for talking therapy with a therapist or 100 quid with a psychiatrist

Private therapy was the best money I ever spent. Maybe second to a cleaner.
 

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
Spot checking. Social media checks (a random one) Employ more people to check for fraud. Better people doing assessments. Check to see what the people are doing to help themselves. Check appointments are being attended etc.

I mean who's signing off giving pip / a notability car to somebody with tennis elbow?

It would save money by cutting down on fraud cases.

How many people are going to be needed to track the level of fraud that you think there is? What happens to those people when fraud levels are nearing zero
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
How many people are going to be needed to track the level of fraud that you think there is? What happens to those people when fraud levels are nearing zero

Officially PIP fraud levels are essentially zero. The fact that a lot of people know someone committing fraud suggests those stats aren’t particularly reliable though.

We could repurpose them to check on tax dodging.
 

Nick

Administrator
Officially PIP fraud levels are essentially zero. The fact that a lot of people know someone committing fraud suggests those stats aren’t particularly reliable though.

We could repurpose them to check on tax dodging.
They should hang about the BMW garages watching who's trying to get a car.
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
This has got a lot more detail:


Limited to two and a half thousand ish a year so about ten percent of crossings apparently. And only those who can prove a family connection.
It will probably turn out to be a flawed and generally ineffective scheme.
 

SIR ERNIE

Well-Known Member

shmmeee

Well-Known Member

wingy

Well-Known Member
Polticians don’t talk about lowering immigration “why is no one talking about this!!!1!1!1!”

Polticians do talk about lowering immigration “why are they talking about this they must be trying to gaslight us!?!2!2!11!1!!”

The day you people go back to muttering in the corner of a pub and not being taken seriously as a voting block the better. Paranoid conspiracy theorists to a man.
Social media!
Don't think of taxing it t,pay for the privelige of www Web then.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Social media!
Don't think of taxing it t,pay for the privelige of www Web then.

Have deleted as it was a bit OTT but so sick of everything being “it’s a conspiracy” and everyone who disagrees being actually an evil cabal. FFS the world isn’t that interesting. Go and watch a movie.
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
To take it as a very rough mental health marker that can’t be cheated suïcide stats don’t really support the idea of a mental health crisis tbh

View attachment 44347

A definite flattening and slight rise post 200& but still only at sort of turn of the century levels.
20250711_171437.png
 

Captain Dart

Well-Known Member
Not sure that says much, easier to get than sweets
They put my Mum (and many others around the same time) on completely unncessary and addictive Vallium for years, that's going back many decades, eventually she just stopped taking them.

It's my contention that a pill for every ill simply leads to overmedication and cumalative adverse effects. There are better ways to tackle health problems, unfortunately society is stuck in that rut, the way out involves hard work and most people are to darned lazy to do the work. Doctors should be working on reducing a patient's prescriptions not just writing more & more.

Ok rant over. 😁
 

Nick

Administrator
They put my Mum (and many others around the same time) on completely unncessary and addictive Vallium for years, that's going back many decades, eventually she just stopped taking them.

It's my contention that a pill for every ill simply leads to overmedication and cumalative adverse effects. There are better ways to tackle health problems, unfortunately society is stuck in that rut, the way out involves hard work and most people are to darned lazy to do the work. Doctors should be working on reducing a patient's prescriptions not just writing more & more.

Ok rant over. 😁
I got offered them once within an appointment that was 3 minutes max. (Doctors, the other ones don't last that long)
 

Ccfcisparks

Well-Known Member
They put my Mum (and many others around the same time) on completely unncessary and addictive Vallium for years, that's going back many decades, eventually she just stopped taking them.

It's my contention that a pill for every ill simply leads to overmedication and cumalative adverse effects. There are better ways to tackle health problems, unfortunately society is stuck in that rut, the way out involves hard work and most people are to darned lazy to do the work. Doctors should be working on reducing a patient's prescriptions not just writing more & more.

Ok rant over. 😁
Fantastic generalisation there!
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
They put my Mum (and many others around the same time) on completely unncessary and addictive Vallium for years, that's going back many decades, eventually she just stopped taking them.

It's my contention that a pill for every ill simply leads to overmedication and cumalative adverse effects. There are better ways to tackle health problems, unfortunately society is stuck in that rut, the way out involves hard work and most people are to darned lazy to do the work. Doctors should be working on reducing a patient's prescriptions not just writing more & more.

Ok rant over. 😁
Welcome to the privatised US healthcare system that seems to be the alternative to the NHS. Doctors get paid by companies to prescribe drugs. That is a fucked up system.

And while we as a society do have many unhealthy habits, again a lot of that is because companies that sell things that aren't good for us are given far more free reign than they should because they pay lobbyists and politicians.

Another issue is that sometimes now because it's so hard to get an appointment/treatment what could be solved as a minor issue is instead left to get worse until it becomes a big issue. Loads of people that are far less active than they could be because they didn't receive treatment at an early stage and now it's a huge problem to fix.
 

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
Welcome to the privatised US healthcare system that seems to be the alternative to the NHS. Doctors get paid by companies to prescribe drugs. That is a fucked up system.

And while we as a society do have many unhealthy habits, again a lot of that is because companies that sell things that aren't good for us are given far more free reign than they should because they pay lobbyists and politicians.

Another issue is that sometimes now because it's so hard to get an appointment/treatment what could be solved as a minor issue is instead left to get worse until it becomes a big issue. Loads of people that are far less active than they could be because they didn't receive treatment at an early stage and now it's a huge problem to fix.

Yep, nothing to do with the poor doctors prescribing, or the unhealthy, lazy individual, or the BMA that negotiated the mess of the GP contracts under Blair. Where’s the responsibility or accountability ???

I read this recently

‘90 per cent of surgeries have now abolished the old “list” system, in which each GP was dedicated to their own list of patients. The BMA thought this change was a great triumph of negotiation but it has turned out to be a disastrous mistake.

A study of more than four million patients in Norway found that people who see the same GP regularly are 28 per cent less likely to go to hospital and 25 per cent less likely to die. If a doctor knows you and your family, they are far less likely to get a diagnosis wrong. The best way to keep us healthy and out of hospital is if someone has responsibility to make that happen. But if patients become like anonymous call centre customers, the reverse is true’

ps i do also find the pushing of prescriptions drugs for everything pretty disgraceful. The final call is the doctors though
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Once again I feel I have to remind people which demographic is the main driver of increased healthcare costs as well as benefits costs and it’s not working age people.

The fundamental issue all of this is dancing around is that we are getting older and old people cost a lot more to look after. Salami slicing benefits for working people or mental health support for teens is just avoiding the elephant in the room: taxes need to go up to pay for the older society we now have. This isn’t anyone’s fault, birth rates drop as countries develop and people get richer. But it is our problem.
 

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
Once again I feel I have to remind people which demographic is the main driver of increased healthcare costs as well as benefits costs and it’s not working age people.

The fundamental issue all of this is dancing around is that we are getting older and old people cost a lot more to look after. Salami slicing benefits for working people or mental health support for teens is just avoiding the elephant in the room: taxes need to go up to pay for the older society we now have. This isn’t anyone’s fault, birth rates drop as countries develop and people get richer. But it is our problem.

Agree, which is why putting all extra cash into the nhs, when a relatively small proportion of it could make a far bigger difference if it went into social care, seems crazy to me.* Also why I think what the BMA/resident doctors (likely followed by consultants etc) are doing is totally unacceptable - theyll be happy to use up the extra cash with no material improvement to the nhs or patients


*it would also help reduce some of the bed blocking issue which in turn helps nhs capacity.
 

Sky Blue Pete

Well-Known Member
Yep, nothing to do with the poor doctors prescribing, or the unhealthy, lazy individual, or the BMA that negotiated the mess of the GP contracts under Blair. Where’s the responsibility or accountability ???

I read this recently

‘90 per cent of surgeries have now abolished the old “list” system, in which each GP was dedicated to their own list of patients. The BMA thought this change was a great triumph of negotiation but it has turned out to be a disastrous mistake.

A study of more than four million patients in Norway found that people who see the same GP regularly are 28 per cent less likely to go to hospital and 25 per cent less likely to die. If a doctor knows you and your family, they are far less likely to get a diagnosis wrong. The best way to keep us healthy and out of hospital is if someone has responsibility to make that happen. But if patients become like anonymous call centre customers, the reverse is true’

ps i do also find the pushing of prescriptions drugs for everything pretty disgraceful. The final call is the doctors though
25% less likely to die is a claim ……
 

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