Please help

ejcmonster

Hi everyone,
Iv been on pip for about 6 years now.
Have severe mental health issues (all diagnosed) I’m under the mental health team.
4 years ago I had a operation that went horribly wrong leaving me with severe ptsd, pain, incontinence, pain and a addiction to painkillers.
I am under a drugs programme and in recovery.
My husband is my carer and is in charge of all medication, cooking, washing me etc
I sent in hundreds of evidence and Iv always had paper assessments due to my mental health.
I have been told I have to have a telephone assessment this time and it’s literally making me feel suicidal.
I have never done this before and I’m scared.
I was hoping someone could help me prepare for my call please because I’m honestly worried I won’t make it to the call, it’s made my mental health that bad.
Please no judgement I’m so fragile but just need some help please

AKR

My first PIP award (3 years from 2019) was after a paper assessment late 2019/early 2020, based solely on mental health diagnoses/symptoms. My second PIP award (4 years from 2022) was via a zoom assessment in 2023, again based on mental health diagnoses/symptoms and additional physical diagnoses/symptoms which became prevalent in 2022. It is not unusual for assessments over the phone/zoom and you shouldn't be alarmed by it. Having severe mental health symptoms, doesn't exempt you from phone/face to face assessments (I also suffer severe mental health symptoms, including psychosis). You should (with help from your husband) prepare well in advance of the call because you need to give yourself plenty of time to prepare for the assessment. You should review the PIP form you sent in and all the evidence you sent in and make as thorough note as possible of any additional things you want to highlight. As your husband is your carer, he should also be present so he can support you and also explain the things he does to assist you in daily living/mobility activities. I can understand how daunted you are but the best thing is to prepare things in bite size bits - in other words do a little bit of preparation each day. That should give you a focus/distraction and I am sure once you commence that (with your husband's help) you will start to feel more at ease and empowered. I would also recommend you try and practice some relaxation techniques - controlled breathing, meditation etc. Try to calm your thoughts and take things step by step. I suffer from recurrent suicidality myself (for decades) so I do understand how you feel but I also understand how best to cope with such intrusive thoughts. I hope this helps.

Remina

When I had my most recent PIP telephone assessment I didn't have any support, I was very anxious and worried about it, I was so worried I was shaking - however as it turned out I was lucky enough to get a very kind and compassionate woman who did my PIP re-assessment on the phone, she was very understanding, soft and caring in the way she spoke to me, the call lasted around 40 minutes and at the end she told me ''Please don't worry, I can tell that you are struggling and I'm going to tell you right now that I am going to reccomend to the DWP that your PIP award will remain exactly the same..'', and it did! Within weeks I had a letter from the DWP telling me that I was awarded PIP for another 3 years at the exact same rates as I had previously.

So I was one of the lucky ones who had a good experience with my most recent PIP assessment, sometimes you get a person doing your assessment who is very kind and understanding, fingers crossed you have a similar experience.

ejcmonster

thank you for taking the time to answer me, I think my biggest problem is saying things out loud.