Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
Are we medicalising normal struggles?
As a psychiatric service user of 30 years, I was interested to read Harry’s criticism of health secretary Wes Streeting for saying doctors are ‘over-diagnosing’ mental illness (MetroTalk, Fri).
He says that instead of criticising doctors, Wes and his colleagues should concentrate on improving social health (bad work environments/low pay etc).
But isn’t this exactly what Wes is saying? That many people are being diagnosed with a mental illness/disorder when in fact they are experiencing healthy normal human reactions to the increased psycho-social stress and isolation of modern society?
Rather than being diagnosed with a ‘condition’ and treated with pills and even therapy that the NHS can ill afford, the way forward for many on long waiting lists has to be social prescribing, where people are given prescriptions to reach out to community organisations for peer support, empathy, connection or exercise etc. I have witnessed the transformative effects that this kind of ‘treatment’ can have on people with chronic intransigent mental health difficulties and I think that is exactly where Wes and co are trying to take the conversation around ‘over-diagnosis’. Debbie, London
Would universal basic income end benefit debates?
‘experts have been recommending it for years’
I can’t help feeling there wouldn’t be all these rows about cutting benefits and people’s ability to work if we established a universal basic income, which has been recommended by experts for years. Mo, Bradford
Gen-Z is missing out by quitting work
‘I met my wife and friends at work’
I don’t understand the young generation shunning jobs – a survey by PwC having revealed a quarter of Gen Zs have considered quitting work (MetroTalk, Wed). About 80 per cent of my phone contacts are friends I made in the workplace 35 to 45 years ago. I met my wife there. They were among the happiest days of my life. I have fond memories of us all going to the pub on Friday nights. Steve Mitchell, London
Public transport announcements are making less aware
‘people have lost the ability to think for themselves’
Much has been said on MetroTalk
about ‘nannyish’ public transport announcements. Some say that they are necessary but they are, in fact, ridiculous.
For example, whoever died of dehydration on the Tube – yet we are constantly urged to carry water in hot weather?
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The problem is that, because of these ‘childlike’ announcements, people have lost the ability to think for themselves.
There used to be ads about pickpockets and as commuters walked by, they would check their wallet – while being watched by pickpockets who would then know which pocket to pick.
It’s the same with supermarket loyalty cards – the person serving nearly always has to ask the customer if they have a loyalty card, at which they say, ‘Oh, yeah.’ Why do they need the prompt? Glen Purcell, Twickenham
Do job titles really need a rebrand?
‘you still need to explain what the job entails’
Regarding club bouncer Delia
El-Hosayny preferring to call her job ‘ejection technician’ (Metro, Thu). Why give your job a fanciful name and then need to explain what the job entails? Doctors, lawyers and bin men don’t call themselves ‘WFH health specialists’, ‘sharks’ or ‘environmental executives’, do they? Delboy, Yorkshire
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