Benefits and mental health: 'You have to be strong to ask for help'

Inside City and Hackney Mind, the charity supporting those with mental health issues in the London borough who are being left behind by changes to benefits

Roberto*, a factory worker in his thirties who suffered sexual abuse as a child, has attempted suicide three times in the past four weeks. He has chronic depression, sometimes hears voices and believes he may have schizophrenia but has never even seen a psychiatrist.

“You have to be strong to ask for help,” said Roberto, at a meeting on Wednesday with City and Hackney Mind’s 6-strong welfare advice team, who help those in the borough with mental health problems navigate the no man’s land they find themselves in when they become too sick to work or have a change to their benefits.

We need to see an overhaul of the system with more tailored specialised support and less focus on sanctioning

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