Depression

Hi - I have an ESA medical with ATOS on Friday, I was in the WRAG for a year, tried working part time, that lasted six weeks, the reason I tried working was because I thought it would help me mentally, I lost my sister to cancer in January of this year and started the job in Feb of this year, only to realise it wasn't working out for me, I'm not physically fit; and so re-applied for ESA and of course back into assessment phase, hence the medical on Friday, I had been very depressed at losing my sister, and on Friday 3rd June was told my son (33) was found dead in his house, Now I am Suicidal, but my Atos medical is for Physical disability, I get HRM & LRC, Now the question....Could I tell them about how I'm feeling, and would this help with my claim, ESA know about my son, he was also on ESA so I had to cancel his benefits myself.
Sorry this is long winded, but I'm truly at a loss with everything, there is no way I could even consider going to work, this ordeal of Atos medicals and my depression is getting out of hand.

hi you need to tell them everything. how your feeling,what your feeling. may i ask why you are having a physical medical? surely it should be for both if you have mental and physical?

There's nothing to stop you telling the Atos assessor that you have mental health problems. Indeed, as part of the assessment, he should ba asking questions to see whether any of the mental descriptors apply to you.

Do take a look at the mental descriptors, either by doing the self-test on the home page, or by looking at our materials in the Help for Claimants section. That will help you to bear them in mind when answering the assessor's questions. I say this because it's easy to give a not very accurate answer without realising the implications of what you've just said. For example, if you mention watching television, it may be assumed that you can watch whole programmes every evening, whereas you may watch a few minutes at a time for one programme a week.

Hi Lyn

I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your Sister and your Son.

I take it that you didn't make a claim for mental disability when you filled in your ESA50?

If so, you should state your recent problems and depression at the medical on Friday. It helps to have supporting medical evidence to confirm a new illness so I think it would be a good idea if you discuss your situation with your GP as soon as possible, and perhaps try to send more up-to-date medical information to the decision maker to consider before the decision is made.

Good luck, and please let us know how you get on.

Best wishes

Derek

Lyn - sorry for the loss of your sister in January, and the most recent loss of your son

Good luck with your medical on Friday,do emphasise your physical disabilities/problems and mention what effect the recent losses in your life are having overall on your general health.

Please remember 'normal/healthy' people who experience a death/loss, sometimes just cannot cope with life. We are ill and have numerous problems, so your depression should be taken into consideration - just my opinion, Good luck and please let us know how you get on - will be thinking about you.
xx

Sandra wrote:

hi you need to tell them everything. how your feeling,what your feeling. may i ask why you are having a physical medical? surely it should be for both if you have mental and physical?

As far as I understand the healthcare professional has to carry out a mental (or physical) assessment if there is any evidence of such disability, whether it's from a MED3 certificate, ESA113, ESA50, what the claimant says at the assessment, or from the healthcare professional's observations of the claimant; but I wouldn't trust the latter!

If there is no evidence of mental illness in the documentation it is absolutely essential that a claimant clearly states it at the medical.