If the government and councils are serious about wanting service users to help shape their own treatment they would do well to canvas the views of the growing number of bloggers. A litany of frustrations and run-ins with officialdom are catalogued in blogs by public service users, interspersed with some tales of help and hope.
A service user, who has depression and blogs as The Disordered One, recounts his experience of a dispiriting medical to assess his suitability for work or incapacity benefit. The 31-year-old, from Preston, Lancashire, found it disconcerting having "to go through a system that presumes I'm a malingerer and must be punished." He added:
"I was asked the usual questions. How did I feel? How did my feelings affect what I was able to do? Was I capable of this, that and the other? ... [The doctor's ] report will be passed to my personal advisor, who I've yet to meet and probably has not learned of my existence. No doubt this will be a poorly-paid civil servant skilled in hassling and demeaning the "unworthy" as those are the types who tend to be successful. Even if only people come off benefits just to avoid them. It all goes towards hitting government targets. And we all know targets are more important than people."
Even the upbeat Lorraine Hershon, who blogs at Keep Buggering On!! hinted at daily frustrations when she wrote this:
"I absolutely love having conversations with my 4 yr old son ... this morning he says to me: 'Ma, my legs are not working very well, I think I need to use your wheels.' You have to imagine a certain earnestness about this. So I thought a second and then replied: 'Hmmmmm, you know I think they might be a bit big for you at the moment, and anyway how would you manage at nursery?' He gave me that knowing solemn look and then said: 'Yes Ma, I might get stuck in the door.' Ah yes I thought, I wonder where he's seen that before!?"
But former drug user Carl, writes about how his life has been turned around by a drug treatment programme on his blog for charity Turning Point:
"I eventually ended up in front of the judges again, and again I got a chance, only because of my DRR [drug rehabilitation requirement] and Turning Point workers, Gill and Donna. They convinced the judges they could work with me and knew I was now at a point in my life where I knew I had to change, or I'd be dead by 35... Because of my 'good progress' I was referred to be interviewed to go on a waste management course. My attendance was good and I've loved every second of it and my work prospects are now long-term. I can choose to go into waste management or utitilies."
Hasn't anyone else got anything positive to say about their treatment?
