A Warning For People on Medication for Depression | Beastrabban\’s Weblog
The issue here is that people on medication for depression are often claiming a benefit – most likely Employment and Support Allowance – so failure to get a repeat prescription will signify you don’t need the benefit any more.
So after just three months, not only will you suddenly find you don’t have the medicine you need to function, but you will also find yourself thrown off the income-supplement benefit you need to survive.
Chances are that the loss of benefit will trigger a severe attack of depression… and suddenly we’re in another chequebook euthanasia situation.
Of course, a solution is presented: Go back to your GP and get another prescription.
But GPs are already overworked, and this will only add to the pressure on them – for no good reason at all.
So, good luck getting that repeat script!
Perhaps a better solution would be to reverse the harmful government policy and bring sanity back to healthcare.
It can be done – you just need the will to do it. Get organised. Get together with others in the same situation. Get out, knock on people’s doors and tell them what’s happening and who’s responsible.
What have you got to lose? The Tories are already taking your medicine and your money.
This is a warning based on my personal experience. Like many people, I suffer from depression, for which I am, thankfully, on medication. However, the government, David Cameron, George Osborne, the head of the health service, Jeremy Hunt, and their corporate paymasters seem to resent the fact that so many people in Britain now are on medicine to treat this condition. So they’re doing their best to throw people off it.
About a year or so I had to go to my doctor again for an examination after I had a repeat prescription turned down. I was told that because the government was concerned about the mental wellbeing of sufferers like myself, they were stopping automatic repeat conditions in order to make people see their doctors.
It is, I was told, a condition that can get worse, and so it had been decided that sufferers like myself had to be seen every three months rather than the six I was used to.
I was told by the doctor straight out that the government didn’t care about people with depression, and so wasn’t going to notify them that they needed to make another appointment with their doctor if they want to continue treatment.
Their medication is just automatically cancelled after three months.
So, if you suffer from depression, or know someone who does, be warned. The government has clearly decided that you only deserve to be on it for three months. After which, they seem to believe that you have got better.
It seems to me very much they are cancelling automatic repeat prescriptions for depression as they really do believe that it’s simply the case of pulling yourself back together. Or straightening your tie, putting your shoulders back and singing the national anthem, or whatever other stupid remark Cameron thought was a witty reply to Corbyn in parliament the other week.
If you are like me, please don’t get caught out. They’re using any trick they can to throw people off benefits. People have been sanctioned simply because they’ve been late responding to a request for an interview. Don’t let them pull the same trick with your mental health.
Source: A Warning For People on Medication for Depression | Beastrabban\’s Weblog
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I see my Dr every three months and if my agoraphobia is really playing up they will even come out to me. But then I suffer with other types of mental illness as well as physical ones. To get my repeats all I need to do is telephone the Chemist and they will do it for me and once signed by a Dr, I get my meds delivered to my door. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones in that respect.
It is not a laugh but true; If you don’t know the word depression, or simply don’t mention it, the government thinks your not depressed. You can’t make this up.
More unnecessary work for doctors. That makes sound economical sense, after all, what else have they got to do?
thank you for the information…i didnt know any of that…ive reposted on facebook so others can be aware…x
As this is a health matter I think it’s just in England at the moment.
Thankyou for this information i dont think its happening in wales yet but for warned and all that,Thankyou.
Im sure most people are ‘blissfully’ unaware of this. I was and its a special area of interest. will pass this on to friends and colleagues.
I have been on anti-depressants for 20 years and for most of that time I have been in work (although I am currently on ESA following a major breakdown). I have never had problem getting a repeat prescription. My GP surgery requires me to have medication review about once a year but that is it.
I am rather baffled by thise piece.. The idea that the majority of people on anti-depressants are are ESA or other out of work benefits is a false assumption. Many are but many aren’t. I myself hope to return to paid work eventually but fully expect to remain on my meds.
So you’re on ESA and on anti-depressants at the moment, then? That’s hardly a good example for your own argument.
Having gone back over the article, I’ll accept that more people with depression may be in work than on benefit. My point was that, in the cases of those who are on benefit, it could be used against them by assessors. That’s a valid one.
Ha try and get a chronic pain appointment in the south east…. Oh sorry all the clinics are closing because the doctors who run them are all retiring and no one want to run them apparently. So where do i go my doctor is not happy giving out major doses like i am on and many others is this another attempt because fentanyl and diamorphine patches are expensive i wonder….!
The clinic they want me to transfer to i tried years ago there advice try a TENs machine great i am not pregnant ;) Useless so i am not happy time to kick up a stink, i will not accept my care should be effected because of cuts…
My meds are on a one year repeat. I order them online and pick up the prescription myself so I know there isn’t a problem. I’m very lucky that I have a GP who I get on with too, which makes everything much easier.
This isn’t always the case as I know people who are not working and claim ESA and are not on anti depressants. It’s based on your health yes. But just because you may or may not suffer depression if not a contributing factor. And a GP cannot refuse you a repeat of your medication because that means stopping your medication abruptly and you should never do that with anti depressive medication as you can have terrible side effects, so that is bad practice.
People who are on ESA but not on anti-depressants don’t come into this.
It’s about people who are on anti-depressants.
Here is areal problem of the policy and decision makers knowing nothing about people who suffer from depression. It is NOT just a question of medication…indeed for sum people anti depressive medication can increase the symptoms ….let alone the considerable side affects of being on long term medication..we need much better mental health services and follow up by medical practitioners who seem to opt out . The answer is not just drugs……Also we start with a false premiss….
In my experience far more people with depression are in work than on ESA
I’ll accept that people with depression may not be usually on ESA – although they often are. People with mental health issues are by far the largest group of ESA claimants.
Of course, this question doesn’t have any bearing on the point of the article.
I suffer from severe clinical depression as well as other mental health issues and am on ESA, the government are not very sensitive to sufferers like myself, had to fight tooth and nail to prove to them that I am genuine, they don’t make it easy for you at all!
Do you know that this lot only won the election with26% of the vote that,s why it,s hard to find anyone who did vote for them !!
Slightly less than 24 per cent, in fact.