PIP phone assesment

Hi Hazel,

Just thinking about your care plan: I can only assume that the CMHT co-ordinator is reluctant give it to you because it may cause you harm (as I think BIS has already stated). However, would that co-ordinator be willing to write a short statement saying why you are unable to see the plan?

My hope is that you may be able to link his/her reasoning to a few descriptors, thus evidencing your need for PIP.

I have always had access to my care plan (which has been useful for evidence). I expect that I have had that access because it won't have too negative an influence on me. If I didn't have access then I would definitely ask my social worker to write why not.

Btw, I once had a locum psychiatrist write to me and GP - listing meds but also suggesting Recovery College nonsense - as I have agoraphobia!?! Didn't use that letter for evidence.....

I hope you can take inspiration from the others that have posted on your thread, and you can keep on fighting. My brother has BPD, was assessed by a physiotherapist, BUT went on to secure Enhanced/Enhanced for 5 years at Tribunal!

Pulling for you,

Susie

got my "we have all the information we need to make a decison" letter today... so I guess the decision is not far away now...

My care coordinator seems tobe under the impression that the DWP will contact him and that it's wrong to give me a letter to pass on... I don't really "get it" but at the moment I can't find the brain space to argue with him. Looking at getting the CAB to help with the inevitable MR so if it comes to it I may ask them to speak to him about a letter/statment

the recovery college stuff is awful and stressing me out something terrible... how I am meant to essentially do self guided stuff when I can't concentrate on it I dont know... and the website doesn't work wit my text to speech softwear so reading it is a lot of work. Also the CMHT will not seem to believe me that I cannot do mindfulness and seemingly am incapible of visualising stuff at all. But anyway... guess i have to "paly the game" to get any other help
Apparently (based on an informal poll of some online friends and a short conversation with a mental health nurse I know) everyone gets the recovery college stuff first as it's the least invasive and they want to teach us skills before building on those skills, but I doubt the DWP will see it that way... they will just see it as evidence that my mental health isn't that bad. Guess could send a copy of the NICE guidlines that explain that slef guided low intervetion is tried first, but I doubt they'd read it

My housemate has agreed to writting a statement, I wanted to get it in before the decision maker made a decision but looks like it will be part of my MR evidence now as he's not gotten round to it yet
Got a GP appointment next week as he's monitoring my medication until the psych appointment comes through, thinking i may give him an "info dump" at the same time to make sure the right info is on my medical records incase I need to get a GP letter during the MR process. oesn't help that I am still on waiting lists for certain things - some of theese are 5 years long so going to be a while - making for a lack of a papertrail or evidence

Hi Hazel, to borrow a phrase from another member, your mental health team are ignorant bar stewards. As you have autism the 'recovery college' stuff will be claptrap for you, of course it won't work any more than CBT, mindfulness, or visualisation will as far as I know. You should as much as you can tell them this and try to get support from someone who really knows about autism. Many people on the spectrum are also biochemically different so that most antidepressants don't work as intended if at all, not local anaesthetics [eg dental] and many other meds including common painkillers. If you possibly can try to keep a diary of how impossible the stuff you are being asked to do is, you can then use this in your PIP fight now or later to prove that your needs are NOT met by this stuff. And to show to the dippies who insisted you do it!
Best wishes, Denby
[probably on the spectrum myself as well as my OH but hey I've got to wait several years for an assessment -that's official!]

I think the CMHT are a bit stretched right now, so I guess the recovery college is an easy thing for hem to send me. Though it is an issue as my text reader software doesn't work properly on the site and I also can't print it out in order to use my overlay (irlens) so even reading the stuff is really difficult let alone actually understanding, processing or just having the concentration to go through it. I'm scared to bring it up though as may be seen as being difficult or non-complient and then I would have nothing...

My housemate has written out a statement ready for the MR. It's ot got everything in there, but it's 2 pages already... it does cover the main points that he helps me with and things he's witnessed though.
A friends mum has also offered to write soemthing, she was one of my teachers when I was at primary school and in the PA4 one of the things claimed is that due to my autism being diagnosed so late I much not have had issues as a child and so therefore it must be "mild" in its presentation. So my friends mum has offered to write a letter explaning that the school pushed for assesment when I was 6 but my mum refused to consent. Do you think this would be of help? Or would it, as I assume, be seen as irrelivent due to it being so long ago?