'Bleak picture' for mentally ill: 80% are jobless

[bobevenson]

You see, Gary, if you tell somebody what country you're from, he'll be able to figure out you're from Earth, and who knows what that could lead to.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Please, Gary, you're asking him/her an embarrassing question.

Not embarrassing, just rude. Polite people don't ask personal questions of strangers on the internet. Don't you Americans learn good manners from your momma? Is that why you produce the most obnoxious children on the planet? It doesn't matter what country I say, Boooby, you will come back with some bullshit that your hell-hole is 'bigger', 'better' blah, blah, blah...
Of course, that will be AFTER you have googled it, since your limited education has taught you that Europe is a country, and that the only country worth a damn is your own.

Apologies. Didn't realize I was being rude.

EDIT: Though, to be honest, I was a little offended that you seemed to imply that I thought the US was the only country on the planet.

It was aimed more at Boob, who keeps asking me the same thing over and over again even though I've made it clear it's none of his business. He has no reason to know anything about me, apart from what I write here. And most Americans do act as if their's is the only country on the planet. No one else here writes about their own domestic politics, jargon, sport.... taking it for granted that everyone else knows what they are talking about. Oh, and chances are they will know what you are talking about, because people from other countries aren't egocentric, navel-gazing maniacs, and they actually learn about and take an interest in the rest of the world.

[bobevenson]

Like I said Gary, don't pin him/her down to what planet he's/she's from.

[Gary Childress]

Not embarrassing, just rude. Polite people don't ask personal questions of strangers on the internet. Don't you Americans learn good manners from your momma? Is that why you produce the most obnoxious children on the planet? It doesn't matter what country I say, Boooby, you will come back with some bullshit that your hell-hole is 'bigger', 'better' blah, blah, blah...
Of course, that will be AFTER you have googled it, since your limited education has taught you that Europe is a country, and that the only country worth a damn is your own.

Apologies. Didn't realize I was being rude.

EDIT: Though, to be honest, I was a little offended that you seemed to imply that I thought the US was the only country on the planet.

It was aimed more at Boob, who keeps asking me the same thing over and over again even though I've made it clear it's none of his business. He has no reason to know anything about me, apart from what I write here. And most Americans do act as if their's is the only country on the planet. No one else here writes about their own domestic politics, jargon, sport.... taking it for granted that everyone else knows what they are talking about.

You make some fair points. I'll try not to ask your country of origin again. And I'll try to be more clear in what country I am referring to in future posts.

[bobevenson]

Gary, you don't have to apologize to somebody who's probably not even from this planet.

[Gary Childress]

Like I said Gary, don't pin him/her down to what planet he's/she's from.

To be fair, Bob, I'm sure we don't need to know what country VT comes from. Especially if it's just to squabble over who's country is better or worse, then it's probably not going to solve anything.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

Like I said Gary, don't pin him/her down to what planet he's/she's from.

To be fair, Bob, I'm sure we don't need to know what country VT comes from. If it's just to squabble over who's country is better or worse, then it's probably not going to solve anything.

And Boob here is a prime example. He whines endlessly about laws, taxes etc.. he doesn't like, as if the laws in his country apply to everyone else's countries. I don't see any Belgians on here doing that. Or British. Or Australians....
Boob is upset that his lengthy time in prison is hindering him from owning an AR15. He's wants to relive his days of glory in Vietnam. I'm not sure why he thinks anyone in Galdavia or Snokzokistan would care.

[Arising_uk]

Please, Gary, you're asking him/her an embarrassing question.

Is it embarrassment that stops you from answering a few simple questions bob?

1. Are you an agnostic or an absolute fool(your definitions)?
2. If the former then what does this make this 'divinity' of yours?
3. What do you do for work, i.e. how do you make a living?

[FlashDangerpants]

.

[FlashDangerpants]

In relation to that actual topic.

We seem to have a very limited scheme along those lines over here (UK). A guy I worked with had a fairly senior, medium stress sort of IT job that was a little beyond his capabilities tbh. He was a bit twitchy and paranoid (wouldn't leave his chair for 8 hours when working alone because he thought people were actually checking the CCTV).

In the end he flamed out badly and spent a couple of years on sick leave (twice as long as he'd been at the company). Recently he's being reintegrated with a lot of external support, fewer hours, and in a much less senior role. It seems to be working for him though. Without that support, I can't imagine he would have got back into the same industry.

[Gary Childress]

In relation to that actual topic.

We seem to have a very limited scheme along those lines over here (UK). A guy I worked with had a fairly senior, medium stress sort of IT job that was a little beyond his capabilities tbh. He was a bit twitchy and paranoid (wouldn't leave his chair for 8 hours when working alone because he thought people were actually checking the CCTV).

In the end he flamed out badly and spent a couple of years on sick leave (twice as long as he'd been at the company). Recently he's being reintegrated with a lot of external support, fewer hours, and in a much less senior role. It seems to be working for him though. Without that support, I can't imagine he would have got back into the same industry.

We have vocational rehab where I live in the US which is supposed to help people with disabilities find employment. I'm actually scheduled to see them soon as I'm diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and lost my last job a couple years back due to an episode I had. I don't know much about their programs or how well they work as it's a first time visit but I guess I'll find out. I was actually a little surprised by the statistic that 80% are jobless. I've worked most of my adult life despite my illness. However, I'm not in quite as bad shape as some. Although most of my time working was spent bouncing from job to job and struggling a lot. I never told any of my employers beforehand that I had an illness.

[FlashDangerpants]

That statistic is liable to be skewed. Over here we tend to end up moving people who are longer term unemployed out of that statistical bucket and into a disabilities category.

Of course the result was that we had a huge number of people who were permanently signed off for minor things that don't really prevent a return to work. So now we have a whole agency that specialises in being absolute dicks to everyone on disabilities allowances. They probably do help a lot of people into good schemes for returning to work (I strongly doubt we have enough of these schemes though).

But they also hassle terminal cancer patients, and withhold benefits from people who refuse to grow their legs back or weird shit like that. So if they do any good work, it gets sort of lost beneath the pile of self inflicted absurdities.

[Gary Childress]

That statistic is liable to be skewed. Over here we tend to end up moving people who are longer term unemployed out of that statistical bucket and into a disabilities category.

It is possible that the 80% could be skewed. It seems a little high to me but in the article it is mentioned that it doesn't count the homeless and others who have essentially dropped through the cracks in the system. So some apparently believe unemployment among the mentally ill may actually be even higher than 80%. That's a pretty shocking statistic to me.

Florida (where I currently live in the US) happens to rank 50th (i.e. last) among states in the US in terms of spending on mental health. I lived in the Metropolitan D.C. area (our capital) for most of my life growing up. We had pretty decent public services there and when I was first diagnosed my private health insurance wouldn't pay for the hospitalization. So I ended up in a pretty decent public program which may have saved my life to a large extent. Not as much in terms of public assistance for the mentally ill in Florida. There is a little but the conditions are pretty bad. I volunteer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness and have seen some people in pretty dire straights due to a lack of public support. Many are on their own and have nothing but their own bootstraps to hold onto. Thank God my family (mother and father) have been a major source of support in my life.