The safety net provided by NHS that's there for physical illness is not there for folks with #mentalhealth problems; it's like pre-NHS era.

I am pondering a question and I'm genuinely interested to learn & understand from both experienced & newly-trained mental health professionals whether it's current practice best practice for them to ask this question and in what contexts it is asked and the aims of asking

Free to attend, in person or online (via Teams)

"Who you gonna call?" One Paper Plate equals two ghosts. A spooky original from https://t.co/28aN3vNG4O

This is information that doctors - all medical doctors, including psychiatrists - should know as an absolute bare fucking minimum And which they should also be using to inform the care of their female patients Especially their patients with SMI #WorldMenopauseDay 🥳

Spoiler: I am haggard and deconditioned yet I can still do all the stretches with the prescribed range of motion, from cold This is not a universally good thing!

All those videos on social media from fitness & sport coaches saying everyone needs to be able to do this or that stretch with this or that range of motion while ignorant of/failing to mention significant influences like * hypermobility * sex differences * women's hormones 😬

If I wasn't claiming disability benefits I would simply be thankful I didn't need to and mind my own business.

Good job it's Saturday 😁

Please check if your local mental health trust uses Oxevision (the list is in the tweet below). If yes, please write to them, details of what to do below.

A special shout out on #WorldMenopauseDay 🥳 to women with existing diagnoses of severe mental illness like schizophrenia & bipolar Perimenopause & menopause can significantly worsen symptoms; make the condition harder to manage; & cause new or worsening psychological symptoms

Happy #WorldMenopauseDay 🥳 The highest risk of a woman dying by suicide is ... And the second peak in women experiencing their first episode of psychosis, being diagnosed with schizophrenia, or being diagnosed with bipolar is ... During perimenopause & menopause

So I'd be interested to learn: Why (given all the context I've set out in the thread above) did they choose to ask this question?

The question I was asked is Why haven't you killed yourself yet? I can't recall the exact wording But it amounted to Why are you still alive? Why aren't you dead? Not in the context of an ongoing therapeutic relationship, or help being offered Just ... out of the blue

Was this just personal, rather than professional, curiosity? Was this their lack of experience showing? Was it a shitty question to ask, with no thought on the possible effects on me? What did they hope to learn in asking me this question? I'm genuinely curious to understand

Is this a standard question to ask? Is it current best practice? Is it what new trainees are being taught to ask? Is it just common, here or nationally; something that's evolved into accepted practice in mental health care regardless of (lack of) evidence of efficacy or harm?

I hadn't met this mental health professional before / will probably never see them again (it was a one-off assessment) and was shocked at being asked this question seemingly out of the blue So I am genuinely curious to understand the reason(s) why they asked me this question

My DWP benefits assessments have all been done on the papers, and this question isn't in the questionnaires for things like UC & PIP So I hadn't been asked it before Till last week, when I was asked this question by a mental health professional, a stranger, in a one-off meeting

I've seen poorly & vulnerable folks on social media talk about having been asked this question, in the context of DWP benefits assessments And the awful effects it had on them And thinking how shocking it was I still don't know what DWP assessors aim to achieve in asking it

I've not been asked this question before (Or, I don't recall having been asked it; perhaps I have been asked & my wonky brain has forgotten, or didn't clock it at the time) I've only seen people talk about it on social media, in another context, & how awful, how wrong to ask it

I am pondering a question Not my answer to the question But instead I'm pondering the reasons why the person asked the question as in, in asking me that question, what did they aim to achieve? and whether it is usual or typical or common or best practice to ask this question?