PIP Assessment for mental health

FrancesW

I am going to take my daughter for an assessment for PIP tomorrow, the first question I shall be asking is the medical qualifications and field of expertise. My daughter has mental health issues as well as physical ones and I am praying that we get a qualified mental health expert. My family has a history of depression and two serious suicide attempts, one resulting in my father being hospitalised for 6 months in a psychiatric unit. I believe these facts are relevant and will be bringing these into the conversation. Also my daughter spent five years under a consultant psychiatrist when she was 8-13 also relevant, any advice for tomorrow?

steve51

Hi @FrancesW.

A very warm welcome to you here at our website and online community.

I do hope that we can help you???

Please please you can find a lot of info on our home page about "PIP"

We have also got a "Benefits Advisor" this would be a very good starting point for you.

If you need any help with these please let know ????

"Good Luck" with the assessment please let us know how things go !!!!

MikeBroderick

Hi @FrancesW:

Welcome!

I hope things went well for you and your daughter today.

Please let us know if there is anything we can help you with going forward.

FrancesW

Hi Mike, after driving for an hour to get to the assessment it was cancelled, on my insistence they managed to see her at 16:20 65 minutes late. The nurse we saw was difficult to say the least. My daughter was in tears almost from the start. She was asked had she had suicidal thoughts to which she said she had, does your GP know she affirmed he did. The nurse then asked do you have thoughts of self harming? Again my daughter said she did, "So you don't now, but not anymore" my daughter had to say that she did. She was asked twice about getting into a bath after explaining that she had a walk in shower due to back problems. Although my daughter explained that she didn't drive she was asked twice about driving. Do you have pets? No After an hour we left. On the way home I had to pull over as my daughter had a major panic attack and thought she was having a heart attack. We eventually got home at 19:06. We live near Croydon, South London and the assessment was at Barking, East London.

FrancesW

By the way the assessor was a RGN but with no speciality in mental health, but I was told all our assessors are upto date with DWP policies!!!

Sam_Alumni

Oh @FrancesW I am so sorry you had such a terrible experience! 

We have lots of information and support for if you need to appeal the decision.

You can also file a complaint about your assessment, was it with ATOS or Capita?

k865uk

When WE were told an assessment could be requested our councellor insisted that WE insist on a home visit due to my wife's severity. We did so and we were not invited anywhere or required to have one. Try that angle should they make another request for you to attend and specify the after affects of the initial interview as the reason why.