Respect is Due

Perhaps unusually for this blog I want to congratulate a councillor, in this case Cllr Mick Newton, for telling his story of his own struggle with mental illness in today's Post.

It's rarely an easy decision for anybody to be public about suffering from mental health problems, as Cllr Newton says, "...some have treated [him] as though I have the plague." It's probably even more risky for someone in public life to do so but so often, that's the only way people find out how debilitating depression and other mental health problems can be. Very often depression is seen as the 'least serious' of mental illnesses and, while I acknowledge that its effects are less dramatic than those of, say, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, it can be very disabling and sometimes deadly; suicide is approximately 5 times more likely for someone with depression compared to the general population (6% vs 1.3%).

Regular readers of this blog will know that I suffer from depression and I recognise many of the experiences that Cllr Newton describes in his article. Unfortunately, one of the many people and/or organisations (along with Nadine Dorries) that shows a lack of understanding of my own illness is Nottingham City Council. This combined with the fact that it was them that caused my illness in the first place is a cause of considerable, um, frustration for me.

There's no point in pretending that the establishment of this blog had nothing to do with this frustration and anger at my treatment at their hands. However, I always wanted to ensure that it was very much a way of channeling this anger into something useful rather than just be a ranty mess. It is a ranty mess in places I accept but I do believe I am starting to have a small effect in making NCC accountable for some of the dodgy things it does. I think that's more constructive than taking a baseball bat to Lisa Black's face (as a hypothetical example of a completely unacceptable reaction) and, as an added bonus, it's less likely to end up with me being Big Ron's 'special friend' in the prison showers.

I don't know how things are going to end up in the long run. I have yet to find a route out of this situation and it's certainly not helped by NCC's ongoing abuse of statutory processes to harass me. I'm very pleased that Cllr Newton is back on his feet but unfortunately I feel a little way off that just yet.

Please note - it is Mental Health Awareness Week, the Post has a list of events and activities here.

Ignorance About Mental Health Problems as Disability

The Daily Mail recently carried an article written by Janet Street-Porter which argued that depression was just the latest of a series of trendy diseases. I hesitate to link to it but I decided I would as it is important that you realise what determinedly ignorant, shit-for-brains, mind-bendingly fuck-witted verbal slurry that this massively overrated boat-faced honking old sow has managed to get published in that cretinous reactionary shitrag. Believe me, if I were to happen across this knowledge vacuum and she was merrily aflame not a drop of my precious urine would be used in preventing her painful fiery death.

Ok, maybe I would if I'd just been given three wishes and I'd cashed one of them in for an ability to piss petrol.

Obviously local councils have more awareness than someone like that no? Well, in NCC's case, not by much.

You may remember that NCC currently sees prosecuting me for having an overgrown garden as a viable use of public funds at present, even though it is less than interested in keeping its own house in order. The case was adjourned for them to investigate whether I am a disabled person or not, a fact of which they are more than aware.

If they genuinely didn't know the answer to this question (which they do because the employment tribunal told them) then you'd have thought that the best thing to do would be to contact me for information, maybe even seek permission to obtain further evidence. They didn't do this.

The date of the rehearing approached and I dutifully trotted down to the magistrates court to face my doom.

NCC's solicitor calmly explained to the magistrates that I wasn't a disabled person because she had contacted the council's adult care service (i.e. social workers) and they 'couldn't confirm' that I was. So, a legally qualified employee of Nottingham City Council was prepared to stand up in court and state that NCC's definition of disability was somebody who had a social worker.

Never mind the fact that data protection rules would have prevented the social workers from telling her anything about me without my authority, or that after their treatment of me there is no way I'm letting any of their employees near me, she actually thought that all disabled people would have a social worker and if you didn't have one then you cannot possibly be disabled.

To me this is a level of ignorance of at least the same level as Street-Porter's. I agree that JSP managed to find a wider variety of aspects in which to express her stupidity but then she does claim to be a journalist. But in terms of idiocy levels NCC are right up there.

Believe me, depression can be extremely debilitating but those that suffer from it often don't get taken seriously due to ignorance or because we don't 'look' disabled. And we most certainly don't ALL have social workers for a variety of reasons.

On that last point, I'm off to work on my inane dribbling in the mirror and to try a pair of pants on my head for size. Gotta look the part if that's what it takes...