Civil servants at the Care Quality Commission aren’t letting a little thing like work get in the way of a good time. First it was Race Equality Week and LGBT+ History Month, followed by the soul-searching spectacle of a “Journey to Wellness Wellbeing Week.” They continue to find creative ways of spending their taxpayer-funded hours…
They’re currently in the middle of “Carers Week,” dutifully aligned with this year’s “Caring About Equality” theme to “promote awareness and understanding” – naturally delivered through a string of workplace events between the gruelling hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. This Friday colleagues will be gathered for a “guided meditation session” led by operations manager Belinda Lamb, giving staff a chance to “focus on their wellbeing.” All made possible by the agency’s £264 million annual donation from the taxpayer…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”