“For people with mental health problems, policies are being formulated to act upon them as if they are objects, rather than autonomous human subjects.”
Essential reading from Kitty S Jones…
The government’s Work and Health Programme, due to be rolled out this autumn, involves a plan to integrate health and employment services, aligning the outcome frameworks of health services, IAPT, Jobcentre Plus and the Work Programme.
But the government’s aim to prompt public services and commissioned providers to “speak with one voice” is founded on traditional Conservative prejudices about people who need support. This proposed multi-agency approach is reductive, rather than being about formulating expansive, coherent, comprehensive and importantly, responsive mental health provision.
What’s on offer is psychopolitics, not therapy. It’s about (re)defining the experience and reality of a marginalised social group to justify dismantling public services (especially welfare). In linking receipt of welfare with health services and state therapy, with the single politically intended outcome of employment, the government is purposefully conflating citizen’s widely varied needs with economic outcomes and diktats, which will isolate people from traditionally…
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The Alliance for Counselling & Psychotherapy 