Centro ASSIST’s Post

Shedding Light on Mental Illness: Recognizing It as a Disability in Canada Understanding mental illness as a disability is crucial for creating an inclusive society. Dive into our latest blog post to explore the importance of this recognition and how it impacts individuals and communities across Canada. 📖 Read the full blog post to learn more about the challenges faced by those with mental illness and the steps we can take to support them. 🔗 Click here: https://lnkd.in/eqj8kECC #MentalHealthAwareness #DisabilityRights #MentalIllness #InclusionMatters #Canada #Advocacy #BreakingStigma #SupportAndEmpowerment #MentalHealthAdvocate

🌿 Calling all Disability Support Coordinators! 🌿 ✨Are you searching for a transformative program to enrich the lives of your NDIS participants? Look no further! Introducing the Inner Nature: Foundations Course - an innovative small group program designed to empower individuals with essential skills for emotional wellbeing, self-regulation, and interpersonal connection. 🍁 What is the Inner Nature: Foundations Course? This innovative program offers a nature-based, evidence-based therapeutic approach to support individuals in their journey towards holistic wellness. Through a series of interactive sessions, participants will embark on a transformative exploration of self-discovery, facilitated by an experienced counsellor and disability support worker. 🌿 Key Benefits for Your Clients: 1) Emotional Wellbeing: Learn practical strategies to manage emotions, reduce stress, and cultivate inner peace. 2) Self-Regulation: Develop effective tools for self-regulation, promoting independence and confidence. 3) Expression: Explore creative outlets for self-expression, fostering self-awareness. 4) Connection: Cultivate meaningful connections with peers, enhancing social skills and interpersonal relationships. 5) Nature-Based Therapy: Harness the healing power of nature to promote relaxation, mindfulness, and overall mental health. 🤝 Why Partner with Us? Together, we can offer your participants a unique opportunity for growth and empowerment. Reach out today to learn more about how the Inner Nature: Foundations Course can benefit your clients and enhance your support services. 💡 Want to know more or ready to sign up? Applications close on 08 July. Visit https://lnkd.in/gVCfYd4e to download our Program Guide and submit your Application, or contact us at info@backtonatureecotherapy.com.au #NDIS #DisabilitySupport #EmotionalWellbeing #NatureTherapy #Empowerment #Inclusivity #InnerNatureCourse #Ecotherapy

This article seems to have a connection with one I posted last week about the "sicknote culture" as again it has been mentioned. It is all good and well for new provisions to be put in place such as treatment but how is this going happen? Is it going to be beneficial by withdrawing cash benefits and replacing this with treatments? There are currently 1.9million people on the NHS waiting list for mental health services who remain without any help. This figure is only likely to increase before it goes down. #earlyintervention #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalillness #disabilties #NHS #ambimind

Loneliness Loneliness is an emotional response that happens when a person's expectation from a relationship or social connection doesn’t match with their experience of relationships with others or what they expect or desire. It can further worsen if we see that the cause of loneliness will not change. For example, old age, child disability etc. Improvement can be seen in the condition, but the fact will be the fact anyhow. Loneliness is not a mental health problem, particularly depression and social anxiety can cause loneliness.   Generally, to describe loneliness a person may use some common terms like feeling anxiety, emptiness, fear, shame and helplessness. Being alone or staying alone is not loneliness, you can feel lonely even in the crowd.   Different people feel loneliness differently. • Social loneliness: Lack of or absence of a network of friends, family or community. • Emotional loneliness: Lack of trusting loving relationships even though having a good social network. • Existential loneliness: Less common type and is referred to as a feeling of separateness from others. People feeling life-threatening illness or trauma usually experience existential loneliness.   Rubenstein & Shaver (1982) have categorized behavioral symptoms of loneliness into four areas:   1. Sad passivity, which includes crying, sleeping, doing nothing, overreacting, taking tranquillizers, excessive drinking, and drug use. 2. Active solitude activities like writing, listening to music, exercising, working on a hobby, studying and working to avoid loneliness. 3. Spending money on buying unnecessary items or excessive shopping. 4. Social contact like meeting friends, doing social activities, get engaged in activities to avoid being alone.   Loneliness has been shown to correlate with low self-esteem, shyness, feelings of alienation, and a belief that the world is not a just place. (James, Freemon & Goswick, 1981). It can also be related to boredom, restlessness and unhappiness (Perlma, Gerson & Spinner, 1978).   Researchers suggest that loneliness is associated with social isolation, poor social skills, introversion and depression. Some health risks associated with loneliness include altered brain function, alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular disease & stroke, decreased memory and learning, depression, suicide, increased level of stress & poor decision making and many more.   Some common causes of loneliness 1. Situational variables such as physical isolation, certain health conditions, moving to a new location, divorce or separation, and death of a loved one.   2. Internal factors like low self-esteem or confidence often make people feel that they are unworthy of attention or regard of other people which leads to chronic loneliness.   3. Introvert personalities often feel isolation & loneliness since they are less likely to cultivate and seek connections. To know how loneliness can impact parents of disabled children refer the medium link given below.

https://lnkd.in/ecZTWD3J (Click on link and scroll down to read) Mental health services in the UK have always been hard to access. In the last past 5 years, they can no longer meet the needs of the increasing numbers of suffering individuals. The recuring question is "Why are more people diagnosed with depression/ADHD/ BPD?" So, what is happening? #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthdiscrimination #ADHD #BPD #CPTSD #toriesout

Mental Health Disability Pay is often denied (Source: The Wall Street Journal). A great article from Lauren Weber, published in The Wall Street Journal, highlights the systemic obstacles faced by individuals when filing for disability benefits. They often encounter significant resistance from insurers and benefit-administering companies. #DisabilityBenefits The main reason is that insurers and benefit-administering companies often question the diagnoses and recommendations of workers' physicians, therapists, and psychiatrists. They consider that there is not enough evidence to support the individual being disabled from working due to mental health challenges. #MentalHealthIsHealth #MentalHealth #MentalHealthAtWork #DisabilityPay #Work #BusinessManagement #PeopleManagement #Sustainability

I have a few interesting reflections to ponder over the coming month leading up to World Mental Health day 2024. Why are we still hearing individual narratives about 'mental illness' and calling a crisis line? Has society 'we' not moved past the fact, that we as a society, are eroding the environmental, social and political democracy fabric in the name of economics?💲 Why aren't we acknowledging power when discussing marginalized communities over representation?Our communities are not mentally ill, they're responding to un-affirming, discriminatory and a downright lethal world seeking to erase many of us. I have been bullied, gas lit, dismissed, abused and neglected (can't say anything for legal reasons), and been witness to some of the most unethical employment conduct and psychiatric treatment I have ever witnessed in my 15 years in child welfare and mental health. ⚫ I have been intimidated, harassed, denied my rights, and forced to self discharged due to no allied health team to support my occupational and social needs. 🔴 From employment to treatment, it's been a nightmare. And I vow to work for myself, and consult externally for the rest of my life. 🌃 People with psychosocial disabilities are so discriminated against in the legal system. The law is foundationally sanist. ⚖️ I have been deeply let down by my own training and original professional discipline social work, I have found the institution to be weak, weak in mental health systemic advocacy and reform, weak in unionising, weak in sourcing funding for projects that matter, and are a toothless disciplinary tiger that seeks to fit into the epistemic hierarchy of Accredited Mental Health Social Workers 'Social Psychology'. 🫨 I am Mad, very Mad, at being policed behind the scenes, at not being able to expose injustice for fear of harassment and legal consequences. 🔥 As users, refusers, psychiatric and trauma survivors, ex patient and inmates, the psychosocial disabled and the Mad we need to be collectivising and moving away from further paid employment in the very systems we seek to resist. 🎁 2024 has been a wake up call. My work will remain 🌎🌎🌎. There are private actors and commercial determinants that seek profit over people in the psychiatric services medical industrial complex. 🎢🎢 In this late capitalist stage, we are at severe risk of further rights abuses and violations if we don't collectivise as a community of outraged humans. 🌎 I know I'm being internationally vague, but I've had to carry a lot this year. 🏠 And usually when pushed, I push back harder, but I have been tested to my human rights limits. 🤢🤢 Peer work in mental health services employed by the state is not the answer. 🫢🫢 The more I read, the more I realize the inherent psychiatric oppression and institutional Sanism, the more I realize we need a new world, to abolish, to practice liberation, to see truth to justice. I will not be silenced. And neither should you. 🔥🔥🔥

An article on The Guardian has highlighted how DWP figures have shown that around 20,000 people are off work in the UK every month as a result of poor mental health. Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/eVSCRytS 📱 0333 224 4946 ✉️ info@safehousebd.org #mentalheath #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthstats #carers #carersmentalheath #anxiety #mentalhealthissues #disabillities #thesafehouse #disabilitycare #disability #careplacement

Early findings of a major new research study appear to confirm that, as many policymakers fear, there is a strong link between heavy social media use and mental illness in teenagers. Figures from NHS England show that more and more people are seeking help from mental health and learning disability services, with 16-year-old girls the group most likely to be in contact with these services. Figures released in Wales, meanwhile, reveal long waiting lists for access to mental health support. In an effort to tackle the rising cost of disability benefits, the government is considering extending a scheme in which job coaches visit mental health patients to help them get back into work. https://lnkd.in/eT6crYSi

A few thoughts this #WorldMentalHealthDay: I want to remind everyone that mental illness and disability are more common than you'd like to believe. Disability is the largest marginalised group and is also the only one that you can join at any time through no fault of your own. The same applies to mental illnesses. Trauma doesn't discriminate 🧠 I also want to remind everyone that contrary to popular belief, mental health support is almost impossible to access unless you pay for it, or get really lucky with a charity. Doubly so if you're neurodivergent, LGBTQ+ or in any other marginalised group who services frequently harm (whether intentionally or not). I also want to remind everyone that structural barriers exist, many of which make recovery from mental illness difficult, if not impossible. The job market right now is a great example of this. Fake job listings. Employers ghosting candidates. Not to mention the war on remote work from large employers (whom will ultimately lose). As somebody who has been looking for part-time remote work for some time, managing a job search on top of growing side hustles (She Nomads Sustainably) is really hard to deal with. I feel like I'm wasting so much of my time. Hence, all that's left for the majority of disabled/mentally ill people is usually peer support, as well as medication. This is just not good enough. We need to do better. I don't just mean governments funding services properly. Likewise, employers treating their employees and candidates with respect. Even addressing the climate crisis as soon as possible won't be enough (although it will definitely help) 🌍 I mean community care. It means ordinary people like us looking out for each other. Community care means building genuinely inclusive, accessible spaces that are welcoming to everyone. Community care also means gently holding each other to account if we unintentionally cause harm, rather than cutting off people for small things that could be healed through discussion. This is sadly common among millennials and Gen Z. This makes it harder for traumatised people to build the connections they need to heal. Community care also means doing everything possible to keep somebody employed if they want to and can work, alongside fully supporting anyone who can't work, or doesn't want to. All of these things are key to addressing the mental health crisis gripping the world, doubly so for Gen Z and millennials. Anything that doesn't acknowledge these issues this, or any other Mental Health Day, won't be enough. On a related note, the photo below is of me at the Manchester (un)masked book launch event a few weeks ago. Being in a hall with hundreds of other neurodivergent people in an affirming environment is healing in its own right. I highly recommend finding spaces like this if you're neurodivergent like me ✨ ✨