The myth of the work-shy: why ‘just get on with it’ makes things worse.

Platfform

For Mental Health and Social Change

Amid the headlines and politics, what’s the truth behind mental health and unemployment?

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  1. Systemic abuse in helping services impacts all of us

    Dr Jen Daffin

    Community Clinical Psychologist - Trauma Informed Practice Lead

    We must stop putting the issue of mental health onto the person and blame them or think of ‘them’ as second-class citizens but we must recognise the role adversity, trauma, distress and injustice have on our mental health.

    21 November 2022
  2. Asset Coaching: healing, human relationships in a broken system

    Oliver Townsend

    Head of Connections and Change

    Positive relationships have been talked about for a long time in housing and support. It’s not a new idea. However, with each year we see more often that our systems get in the way of building positive relationships.

    02 November 2022
  3. The cost of living, and the cost of delay: why deeper change is needed now

    James Radcliffe

    Head of Public Affairs and Influence

    'The energy price cap, while welcome, won’t address the fears of those dreading winter in a cold house. It won’t stop their savings being eaten away. And it won’t undo the damage done to our collective health’ - our Head of Policy explains the need for deeper change.

    04 October 2022
  4. Feeling our way through change

    Oliver Townsend

    Head of Connections and Change

    I have been on a significant learning journey during my time at Platfform, I am coming to understand more how our feelings about our work, and changes to it, can impact on how we act. It is why I am particularly proud of the Wisdoms work that we did alongside Caredig housing association.

    07 September 2022
  5. ‘I thought they were going to set the house on fire’.

    Reehana Joiya

    The 22 August is the UN's International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief. As someone who is a victim of violence on the basis of my faith, I wanted to share what happened to me and my family, how that trauma is still real today many years on, and how it has affected my mental health and day-to-day life.

    18 August 2022
  6. Anti-racism: where we’ve got to.

    Reehana Joiya

    I am working to create change at Platfform, to ensure that there is an equal playing field for all, and to help make us an organisation that reflects a wider range of backgrounds and experiences.

    14 December 2021
  7. Financing the plan to end homelessness

    James Radcliffe

    Head of Public Affairs and Influence

    Platfform is supporting Cymorth Cymru and Community Housing Cymru’s call for the Welsh Government to ensure their forthcoming budget truly helps to end homelessness in Wales.

    08 December 2021
  8. Trans Awareness Week: the challenges and joys of realising and understanding who you are

    Oliver Townsend

    Head of Connections and Change

    In a society that spends so much time defining people by whether they have a male or female body, realising that yours doesn’t match up with your identity can be a profoundly difficult situation to navigate. Adding to that, the intense media speculation and frequently heated debate on the matter can have a significant effect on your mental health.

    12 November 2021
  9. The Wales Basic Income Pilot: valuing people over paperwork

    James Radcliffe

    Head of Public Affairs and Influence

    We want to see a world where people who may have received a mental health diagnosis no longer have to attend impersonal, system-led assessments in order to be able to eat.

    10 September 2021
  10. Dipping toes in trauma informed ways of being

    Guest Contributor

    We’ve all been in the same storm but on different boats. We've shared a collective trauma but we have experienced it individually. So, no surprise then that there is not a one-size-fits-all formula for how to support each other in this almost post, but still lingering pandemic.

    13 July 2021