Psychiatrists reject proposed DSP changes

Kevin bloody Andrews has come up with a real beauty this time. He reckons mental illness sort of stops and starts, and that you should go to work when it stops. Apparently he's now well trained in the field of psychiatry. Um, well no not really:

'From a psychiatric perspective, this is indicative of a lack of understanding of the complexity of chronic mental illness and the myriad impacts of this on a person's life and capacity,'' the submission says. 

It warned that making the DSP available only to those with ''permanent disability'' risked leaving a large group of people worse off. 

The College of Psychiatrists said it was difficult to predict how mental health symptoms would manifest, ''making it problematic for people suffering from mental illness, even if it is 'episodic' in nature, to maintain steady employment''. 

Even between episodes problems could occur, the college said, and people with mental health issues could have physical problems due to the side-effects of medication. Read more

Amazing how a Canberra politician can suddenly come up with a brand new theory on mental illness. Wonder who cooked that one up then, oh yes, the McClure welfare review.