failure to function adequately evaluation

• Fair threshold for help

  One strength of the failure to function criterion is that it represents a sensible threshold for when people need professional help.

  Most of us have symptoms of mental disorder to some degree at some time. In fact, according to the mental health charity Mind, around 25% of people in the UK will experience a mental health problem in any given year. However, many people press on in the face of fairly severe symptoms. It tends to be at the point that we cease to function adequately that people seek professional help or are noticed and referred for help by others.

  This criterion means that treatment and services can be targeted to those who need them most.
• At risk of of discrimination and social control

  One limitation of failure to function is that it is easy to label non-standard lifestyle choices as abnormal. In practice it can be very hard to say when someone is really failing to function and when they have simply chosen to deviate from social norms-consider, for example, the table on the right. Not having a job or permanent address might seem like failing to function, and for some people it would be. However, people with alternative lifestyles choose to live 'off-grid. Similarly those who favour high-risk leisure activities or unusual spiritual practices could be classed, unreasonably, as irrational and perhaps a danger to self.

  This means that people who make unusual choices are at risk of being labelled abnormal and their freedom of choice may be restricted.
• Failure to function may not be abnormal

  There are some circumstances in which most of us fail to cope for a time e.g. bereavement. It may be unfair to give someone a label that may cause them future problems just because they react to difficult circumstances.

  On the other hand the failure to function is no less real just because the cause is clear. Also, some people need professional help to adjust to circumstances like bereavement.