“Is a Job a Prescription for a Young Person with Mental Health Issues?”

July 15, 2015

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A “fact checker” responds in The Conversation to a statement by a senior Australian politician describing the government’s supportive employment initiative as a “prescription” for young people struggling with mental health problems. Some had criticized the politician for having a “simplistic” view of mental health treatment.

“But as it happens, there is quite a bit of research supporting what the Minister said,” begins the fact checker.

FactCheck: Is a job a prescription for a young person with mental health issues? (The Conversation, June 30, 2015)

9 COMMENTS

hpostpsychiatry July 15, 2015 at 11:45 am

For those young people who want to work, this obviously sounds much more therapeutic than sitting around idly, languishing in front of the tv all day.

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B July 15, 2015 at 4:32 pm

A stable, living wage job in a supportive social environment he forgot to add. But if you include these criteria – he’s quite right.

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markps2 July 15, 2015 at 5:22 pm

You do know the trick here? The person drugged (others would say taking medication) can not work a job.

A man digging his own grave with a gun to his head , is the patient who takes the psych drugs.

No escape from the “science” of psychiatry. The digger gets to live a bit longer when digging.

When will psychiatry end? When consumers/producers destroy the Earths ecosystem, which will be fairly soon.http://www.fastcoexist.com/3048259/visualizing/what-and-who-are-actually-causing-climate-change-this-graphic-will-tell-you

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- Steve McCrea July 15, 2015 at 5:51 pm
  
  That’s exactly right, and is a big part of why the disability roles continue to dramatically expand in the era of “biological psychiatry.” We are biochemically creating an inability to work, and then claiming that the “disease” caused the disability. The psychiatric luminaries clearly can’t accept the proposition that working could possibly be more important than “taking your meds!”
  
  —- Steve
  
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  - Fiachra July 15, 2015 at 6:27 pm
    
    Exactly, the expensive disability comes from the medication; my records reflect this.
    
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    - squash July 16, 2015 at 12:20 am
      
      “A man digging his own grave with a gun to his head , is the patient who takes the psych drugs.”
      How true!!! The lack of informed consent and the right to choose should be criminal.
      
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Alex July 15, 2015 at 7:01 pm

Work keeps us focused, creative, and interactive, so indeed it is highly therapeutic. At the same time, working in the mainstream these days can be incredibly stressful and crazy-making for anyone. So it seems to be kind of a toss up, from where I sit.

I think the key would be to work at something one enjoys in an environment where one feels valued. That would be of great therapeutic advantage, where a lot of actual healing would occur.

Breaking ground somewhere and creating something new is also an option, for the brave pioneers.

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Frank Blankenship July 16, 2015 at 1:00 pm

1. What the heck are “mental health issues”? 2. Do we perhaps actually mean disadvantageous, inopportune, and adverse environmental and social conditions? (Such as joblessness.) 2. Is unemployment (or under employment) a characteristic of mental patients (i.e. “symptomatic of mental illness”)? 3. Is a job a prescription for a young person without a job? 4. Does a drug regimen improve performance, efficiency, and productivity? 5. Will increased employment have a negative effect on pharmaceutical industry profits? 6. Will increased employment of former mental patients jeopardize the careers of mental health professionals?

I would suggest that this flipping of circumstantial scenarios requires a little more tact than merely flipping a switch, or a burger, but keep at it, and maybe it will lead somewhere.

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bpdtransformation July 17, 2015 at 5:37 pm

Well duh… Much better to have something real to keep you busy than to be slowly turned into a creature from The Night of the Living Dead by zombifying pills.

I love how these obscenely obvious points are stated as if they were revolutionary. A lot of these headlines make it hard not to laugh. These government/psych institutions should publish articles like, “Water has been found to be wet” and “The sun is still yellow”.

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