Mental health at ESA medical

I had a ESA medical recently and scraped by with points for my physical problems but got nothing for my mental health problems even though these are considerable.

Even though I took along written evidence from my doctor and insisted the Atos person take a copy he didn't look at it then and I assume din't look later.

My query would be, how is it possible to get these people to assess mental health factors unless they made very obvious during the medical? Many decisions are made based on things like whether you make eye contact or how well you dressed on the day.

This has happened to me twice now, first time was at a IB medical and I won this on appeal after 12 months. It seems you have to appeal to have get this evidence seen. Has anyone been able to communicate their mental health condition from either the form or the medical without going to appeal and if so how?

Hi keddi, I'm afraid my mental health was pretty much ignored at my assessment and I had to go to appeal.

There may be some stats somewhere about how many pass the assessment who have mental health issues, I'll have a look.

Best wishes,
Rachel

These are the latest figures I could find. Have a look at page 21 of this document;

statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/workingage/esa...esa_wca_27042011.pdf

Best wishes,
Rachel

Yeah, me too - Mental Health looks like it was totally ignored.

Still waiting on a copy of the ATOS report though so I can destroy it line by line.

My Mental Health 'team' have already been in talks with my GP about what has happened so I hope an onslaught is on its way.

Lisa

The best I can come up with is that you put some time aside and take up a pen and paper to really DESCRIBE as vividly as you can what life is like for you with your mental illness. Really make them understand and empathise with your suffering. Then, give a copy of this statement to anyone involved in your care (social worker etc) and make sure they see that you have cc'd it. That way I don't see how they could have the face not to read it.