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THE MENTAL HEALTH PAGES

This site gives precedence to service user and carer voices. These mental health pages begin with recent examples of very pertinent discussions from internet forums. The main voices here are those of Mandy Lawrence (from Luton) and Elizabeth Smith (from Norwich) and I have their explicit permission to post them here. There are others linked to the discussions and who are included, but anonymised, for the sake of completeness. Both Mandy and Elizabeth are users active in service user and carer involvement activities and their articulate comments and observations have a clarity which puts to shame the usual weasel words of government and NHS institutions.

In these early commentaries it is particularly telling that serious cuts are being made to mental health services in the face of current empty government promises to focus on improving those services. it is suggested here, and I would support it, that this is because mental health services, as has been the case throughout the preceding centuries, come very much last on the healthcare lists and government money intended for mental health is frequently illicitly used for other purposes by local NHS trusts, especially PCTs.

These voices are from the cutting edge - they are voices belonging to the real experts; those owning and experiencing the disorder - the dis-ease - and at the receiving end of the services. They know far better than any professional and clinician what is happening and, given the chance, can intelligently inform professional and clinical functions more that any texbook can.

I HOPE THE PROFESSIONALS, THE CLINICIANS AND THOSE TRAINING THEM ARE ABLE TO TAKE NOTE.

THE MENTAL HEALTH BILL

Comprehensive official information about the Mental Health Bill, its history, the Joint Parliamentary Committee's report and the government's response to that can be found on the Department of Health's mental health information page. and a copy of the Genevra Richardson Expert Committee's 1999 Report can be found here.

A document I recently unearthed from dust covered shelves is one I find fascinating. The Great Debate was written by Larry Gostin, a human rights in mental health hero, and published by MIND in 1982. It is about the reform of the Mental Health Act 1959 and fascinating in how much some of the issues (under different terminology) parallel those arising out of the present Mental Health Bill debate. The Great Debate is also a good example of how positive mental health legislation can be built.

Combining a timely, plain english comparison to the legislation proposed for England and Wales, The well written Scots leaflet The Mental Health Act, What's it all About? A Short Introduction shows how Scotland has adopted important Genevra Richardson (and indirect Larry Gostin) principles such as "reciprocity" and "informal care". Just what is so different here that we should have inferior legislation?

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