PIP Eating and drinking

Denise wrote: Hi,

I hope someone can help. I'm struggling with question 4 eating and drinking. Could someone give me some examples of how this would affect someone with mental health problems please? I'm getting stressed with the questions and I can't think clearly.

Thank you.

I'm not an expert in this area so forgive me if I overly simplify or miss anything important.

I would think that problems with eating fall into three areas that I'll label; aversion, ritual and depressive.

Aversion would cover illnesses such as anorexia and bulimia where a claimant won't eat to eat food without supervision or having eaten they have to watched to ensure that they don't try and get rid of it.

Ritual would cover conditions such as OCD and possibly ASD where the claimant may only eat the food if it is presented in a particular manner or maybe the food has to be prepared in particular way or using certain pots and pans, etc.

Depressive would cover claimants who have to be prompted to eat because they don't feel it is worth doing or because they do think they are worthy of the food, they may also eat only when hungry and so do not eat nutritionally.

To be counted as able to eat you need to do so reliably and on the majority of days, if you cannot achieve this then you should score points. Reliably means;

• Safely – in a fashion that is unlikely to cause harm to themselves or to another person.
• To a necessary and appropriate standard – given the nature of the activity.
• Repeatedly – as often as is reasonably required.
• In a timely manner – in a reasonable time period.

You need to explain why you have a problem (e.g. depression)?

How it effects you (I don't eat without being prompted)?

What happens if you don't have support (I won't eat for days)?

When are you effected (every day)?

How long are you effected (all day)?

There may be multiple reasons why you have a problem, don't be afraid to mention them all.

I hope this helps but if not come back to the forum and we'll have another go.

Gordon