I am about to publish the Mental Health Manifesto, which calls for more rights including Habeas Corpus for mentally unwell people detained in the UK. This came about because the UN declared the practicies of dentention without trial and forced treatment unlawful.
I have been contacting people for comment on this document, which can now be purchased in print form here:
As part of this process I have contacted Liberty and Justice for their comments, but they have not yet got back to me.
However, I did speak to Professor Peter Beresford, who is the Chairman of The Centre for Citizen Participation and has been appointed to the Department of Health Policy Research Programme. He says that Civil Liberties groups take little or no interest in Mental Health issues, despite the gaping hole in human rights for the mentally ill. He also says that he sometimes feels that patients would be better off taking their chances with the criminal law, than mental health law, because mental health law is so open to abuse.
Agree. I have a close family relative who has been detained on a number of occasions in the last 11 years. His treatment has been appalling. Our own knowledge was pathetic but we have become better informed over the years. We have challenged our Trust on a number of occasions, mostly to no avail although after one particularly appalling admission, the Trust paid our relative compensation for the terrible mistakes and illegal treatment. Most recently, he has experienced punitive treatment in a PICU - had his personal possessions removed forcibly if he did not take his meds and on one occasion because he was rude (then apologised) to a member of staff. I was told "he has to learn to behave" as if he was a naughty boy rather than someone with a psychosis.I contacted Liberty about this but had no reply or acknowledgement to my email. I don't think they care about people who have issues with their mental wellbeing in this country.
ReplyDeleteWe've decided to use the NR role to try to prevent further forced admissions. We used NR powers last year to get him discharged.
Would like to know how you get on with this and add a voice to this.
Hi - The use of arbitary reasons to section someone or to coerce them to take meds is an abuse of the powers untrusted to them. I'm glad you pursued it and got compensation for him. I heard about someone who was sectioned after a nurse saw him cross a street without looking properly. Another was sectioned after going to visit a friend in hospital. Society seems to think this is all acceptable if you're mentally ill, but it isn't. Also I have never used Nearest Relative rules, but I know someone who has. The doctors can still overrule you, if they want - or at least thats my understanding of it.
DeleteI hope you're relative has better treatment in the future.
your blog title is extremely stigmatizing - "mentals"??
ReplyDeleteHi Retry - I agree with you. It is a terrible title. I have now changed it to mentalhealthmanifesto.blogspot.com. However, it was a bit of a response to the ever ongoing debate on what to call us mentally ill people - patients (my preference), clients, users (the worst one), or even customers (second worst). Hope you continue to visit the blog.
DeleteBen