Wes Streeting orders review into ‘overdiagnosis’ of mental illness and ADHD

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mental-health-review-wes-streeting-welfare-spending-b2877708.html

Posted by mrjohnnymac18

43 comments

  1. We know this is being done with an agenda in mind. Discrimination to save money rather than treatment for people with a condition that’s genetic. Mental health services are woefully under funded so cannot provide meaningful treatment but rather than throw money at it we’ll probably get Streeting saying people don’t count as deserving support.

    New studies are seeing a pattern of micro plastics being linked to increased mental health issues. This would be a very logical answer to why we see far more of it as companies have polluted the planet. We know things like Autism used to be named by other terms and not seen as their own thing, we know people used to be labelled difficult or idiot even with things like dyslexia.

    I wouldn’t wish my mental health problems on people I hate. I’d love to be normal and fully functioning. My life would be better if I was. It is why I keep chasing mental health support despite the NHS service barely existing. I jump through the hoops desperately hoping something will make my life slightly easier and my brain slightly more tolerable to live in. And yet ironically despite my ASD and other diagnosed issues I have more empathy for others than Streeting.

  2. So just work away mental health problems too much young people signed off let’s just ignore people see where that leads with peoples functioning and coping. The Uk has the lowest benefits bill out of other similar countries. Stop trying to throw occupational therapy at people that’s not gonna change their mental health status, some people have a mental disorder and it’s genetic or chemically assigned to a person. If there is no services to help then people become suicidal as a desperate way to end their suffering. Who gets to decide who’s genuinely ill and who’s not I hate this timeline of life.

  3. People can’t help being neurodivergent, just as they can’t help being blind. Just because a few a-holes online have trivialised conditions such as ADHD and autism, doesn’t mean that people with those conditions should be punished.

    And to those that think either condition can be easily “faked” to get (paltry) benefits, check out how HARD it is to get diagnosed and how many years the waiting list for treatment is in your area.

    Streeting is a wet Tory.

  4. It always amazes me how people are made to wait years for a test, assessment, interview that is done in an hour or two.

    The NHS brought this upon themselves.

  6. I’d suggest a review that has already predetermined “overdiagnosis” as being an issue is one that is based in ideology rather than any medical reasoning. Same as how the outcome of the Cass Review into youth transgender care was predetermined instead of actually taking into account medical evidence.

  7. Wait does that mean if I can get a diagnosis removed I can actually afford to get life insurance? My last policy was literally five times my partner’s. Also, maybe more importantly, if I lose the diagnosis do all the symptoms go away too?

  8. Broadening the definitions of these conditions so much that 1 in 5 of the population are now “neurodivergent” (or has certain personality traits, as we used to call them) has had knock-on effects in that many can now give up work and claim benefits. Narrowing the definition and removing the incentives no doubt will magically lower the numbers of people diagnosed every year.

  9. Autism is something like 1 in 18 kids nowadays. Used to be something like 1 in 3k

  10. Just once I’d like someone to ask these suits how they know that.

    “We think nerodiversity and mental illness are overdiagnosed.”

    “By how much? and how can you tell?”

    Just once.

    They just get to make these unhinged assertions without immediate pushback. If they believe neurodivergence is overdiagnosed they are saying they think they know the real number of neurodivergent people in the country but no one stops to ask how.

    Can you imagine if they did this with other conditions “we think short-sightedness is overdiagnosed”, that’s how unhinged they sound.

  12. It’s probably easier to say there’s probably a dozen or so people without ADHD in the UK at this point.

  13. No question though as to whether or not the rise in mental health problems is a reaction to a system that is increasingly dehumanising people. One that has financialized everything so now everything is noticeably shittier, work is a pointless and meaningless toil every day that most people feel trapped in, and thanks to our short term thinking, there is no better future on the horizon.

    But nah, it’s just young people and their tikky tok trends.

  14. Diagnosis is not necessarily the problem, the response to a diagnosis is.

    I do agree that society has become overly fond of pathologising distress.

  17. They really are doing so much bad work when it comes to undoing all the stigmatism around mental illness. Ultimately they‘re having a terrible impact on people with mental health conditions, perhaps they want to drive more to suicide. Whatever it is they’re doing is not helping the discussion on mental health and it’s things like this which will make people suffer more, disgusting.

  18. I’m surprised people are even able to get diagnosed. The waiting time in my area for assessment is 7 years, plus a few more years afterwards to get medication.

    It’s also frustrating that they assume it’s an over diagnosis problem, as opposed to a genuine increase in mental health problems caused by the current state of living. It reminds me of when Donald Trump said that if they stop testing for Covid they’d have very few cases of it, because why fix problems when you can simply stop acknowledging them?

  19. Jesus christ, it took me six years to get diagnosed with ADHD after being stuck on a waiting list pre-pandemic. If they wanna see why there’s been a sudden sharp increase, it’s probably because the NHS is finally catching up with the backlog

  20. If someone tells you they have a mental illness and it is officially diagnosed then believe them.

    I don’t care about saving money or trying to get more people working if there are unwell people walking the streets with no help and no treatment. They are not only a danger to themselves but to us all.

    Wes is wrong for this.

  21. As someone with autism and who has had incredibly bad depression and anxiety (not related to each other) I see his point.

    With other disabilities or illnesses such as whether someone can see or has the flu there are actual tests that are done which medically confirm whether or not they have it. Those tests just aren’t really there for mental conditions and illnesses.

    I was diagnosed with autism the test was just filling out a questionnaire about how I felt about certain things. The reasons I thought I needed testing; sensitivity to touch and sound, difficulty communicating, having ticks, were barely tested at all. I waited 2 years to fill out a questionnaire essentially. One that I could easily lied on to be diagnosed as having it worse than I do.

    Same with my depression and anxiety. Both times I basically just said how I was feeling, the doctor said “I think you have depression/ anxiety” signed me off work and prescribed me some pills for it. No actual tests were done.

    My point isn’t that people who say they have these things are lying. It’s that doctors just take your word for it most of the time, and the tests that do exist are wholly inadequate for actually diagnosing people as having these conditions. Those failures to actually approach these medical issues with medical methodology leaves the doors wide open for anyone who would benefit from saying they have them, financially or otherwise, to simply lie, or at least lie about how bad or debilitating it is for them.
    I’ve first hand seen people who are higher functioning than I am openly declare they can’t do any job because of autism and get PIP for it.

  22. This moron. We literally JUST had a study released saying if anything ADHD, autism and other neurodivergent traits are actually under diagnosed and not treated sufficiently (in tbt case of ADHD with meds to help people function).

    I despise this guy, he’s a sociopath in bed with private healthcare and is not acting in the best interests of any of us who need a functional healthcare system.

  23. Parents come in all the time telling healthcare professionals their son has adhd. You suggest putting limits on screen time, so no screens for three hours before bed, encouraging parents and there kids to have phone free time during meals, you suggest parents read to there kids and take the tv away from the kids room. Parents get angry and tell said healthcare professionals it’s undiagnosed adhd and you need to do something 

  24. Another case of doing a Reform thing to try and stop the need for Reform. Not going to work

  25. Maybe mental health status is influenced by political economic factors? Nah! Surely not!

  26. lol it’s not an over diagnosis its that. There isn’t any mental health support due to endless budget cuts and growing waiting lists. It seems like growing diagnosis but that’s because people early on the list still haven’t been treated so it just builds up as new referrals etc.

  27. Key thing from the BBC article on this is that basically the experts think about 5% of people could feasibly have ADHD symptoms (which are on a sliding scale) and yet 14% of people are declaring that they have ADHD.

    It’s abundantly clear that there is a push – for whatever reason – to prove disability of some kind. It is also noticeable that these sharp increases are in ‘unquantifiable’ illnesses – and physical conditions have remained totally flat.

    I think broadly it really doesn’t help when people claim that the pandemic has caused this spike when really there’s no clinical evidence to suggest this at all. What is far more likely is that many cases are real, but others are invented in order to access benefits, but also maybe working from home rights. In my job, I’ve noticed mental health issues leading to wfh arrangements have coincidentally affected people who have bought houses far away from the office.

  28. Is this the same vibes as, ‘if ye don’t test for Covid, it’s not an issue’?

    Oh and fook Streeting, he’s champing at the bit to welcome American insurance company healthcare here…

  29. FWIW I (a 39 year old man) have struggled all my life with starting projects, missing appointments, misplacing things, over-reacting to criticism, lack of focus etc.

    Turns out I’m not just lazy and useless – an ADHD diagnosis last year has genuinely turned my life around and had me a much more productive member of society.

    Whether our ability to diagnose is getting better, or the environment we live in is amplifying systems but we should be *celebrating* and increase in recognised cases as it means more children will get more support to be a better version of themselves.

    Now – is there a conversation to be had about chances? Certainly. But there is a more important conversation about how support can be better geared to get people back into the workforce, and ensuring that working/volunteering etc. is always rewarded over not-working, where it is a choice.

  30. I managed to get diagnosed and meds within three months. Sorry for you lot struggling.

  32. Given the amount of money and the sheer volume of diagnoses, it would be irresponsible for the government to not look into it. 

    If there is over diagnosis, then we can solve it. If there is proliferation of health problems because of other issues, then we can solve them. But we can’t solve anything if we don’t look into it. 

    TLDR: ignore the clickbait headline, this is a necessary and responsible thing for us to look into

  33. Has he considered that more people are mentally ill because the world itself is completely fucking mental these days?

  34. If the word ‘oik’ didn’t exist, you’d have to invent it for Wes Streeting.

    There has never been a more morally damp man.

  35. ADHD is massively UNDER DIAGNOSED. The adult population who suffer is at least 3-4%, and in prisons it’s over 25%. Don’t treat the issues, we get more crime and addiction.

  36. Rising health issues due to funding cuts? No, it must be the people who are wrong.

  38. As someone with a condition that is considered a disability under EA2010 (and grateful for the protection) but is otherwise able to work like any other adult, I do wonder why we aren’t treating mental health. It’s surely got to be better to treat people and thus help them contribute, rather than leave the benefits system to pick up the pieces. The recent report by the NHS ADHD taskforce mentions that £17B is being left on the table through lost productivity, so even if we use half of that to support people, it’s still a net positive, and that’s only for one condition.

  39. Maybe have a good look around at the planet we are permanently stuck on, the circus clowns we are “led” by and the society that we’ve built. It’s absolutely no wonder why some people are anxious and depressed.

  40. Mental illness is different to neuro divergence. Some mental illnesses are severe some are less so. Some people’s day to day life is hugely impacted by their mental health condition others less so. The same for neurodivergence. Neither would necessarily automatically ensure you qualified for PIP.  Perhaps that’s what needs decoupling. 

  41. “Wes Streeting orders review into area of healthcare that he can make exclusively private for his donors/owners.”

  43. This sucks, I’m in the middle of getting diagnosed right now. My whole family is riddled with it and for some reason I thought I came out unscathed. Little did I know that if true, it’s basically caused every disaster and created so many issues throughout my life; to think that I could be without genuine help for this is honestly terrifying.

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