Today I have been at the mental health alliance Rally in London. Ok maybe it wasn’t really what we in the movement call a rally - it was more of a conference but whatever you want to call it was still awesome and really highlighted the issues about the draft mental health bill and the concerns that lots of people have from across the sector. (See my past blogs to see my opinion on the draft mental health bill.)

The rally was attended by over 400 people, including grass-roots supporters of the Mental Health Alliance: service users, carers, concerned professionals, and anyone else who wanted to contribute to the debate and show their support for our campaign for better mental health legislation, fit for the 21st century.

What was really good about today was that organisations and people from across the mental health sector had joined together and united against the bill. Ok you might be wondering why this is such a huge thing- well you see in the world of mental health the psychologists don’t like what the psychiatrists have to say, different organisations have different approaches, some follow the medicinal and the social model of disability and all tend not to agree on anything, expect this one thing- how completely outrageous this new bill is.

Yes the mental health services in this country do need looking at and there are some good bits of the bill but the fact that it is once again bringing up the subject of compulsion and sectioning and this is so wrong. And it’s not just being put into hospital but also it could be that people have to be held in their homes- surely this is completely against human rights?

It’s rather sad actually because the draft mental health bill could have given us the chance- a once in a generation chance- to completely improve the rights, care and treatment for people who have mental health issues, but alas no the government has decided to use the bill threaten the rights of people with mental health problems and it could bring mental health services to their knees. The way it stands at the moment anyone basically who has thoughts of self harm or suicide could be perceived to need compulsory treatment. So instead of actively encouraging the people to seek help and to change the stigma of people with mental health issues the bill is actually going to reinforce the whole stereo type of mad and bad. This in fact makes me laugh because if you are reading this sitting next to a young white male you might want to move away now because you have more chance of being attacked or harmed by them then by someone like the author of this blog. All a bit rubbish really.

The day incorporated a number of activities allowing participants to make their voices heard. These activities included: voxpops, to record the views and stories of those attending; a supporters map, on which participants could mark their home town to show a geographical spread of support for our campaign; ‘hotel-style’ comments and suggestions cards for participants to fill in, which were put in a ‘comments and suggestions’ box and carried by a ‘bell-boy’ to the Department of Health at the end of the day, to be received by officials from the Bill team.

The first session, chaired by Cliff Prior, Chief Executive of Rethink (www.rethink.org.uk), focused on the issue of compulsion. Speakers included Janey Antoniou, a service user, John Crawley, the Mental Health lead of the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Richard Stone, former GP and member of the inquiry into the death of David ‘Rocky’ Bennett (www.blink.org.uk). It was the story of Rocky Bennett that really stuck a cord with me. The speaker gave an outline of the case, explaining that David Bennett was restrained, face-down on the floor, after hitting a nurse. In Stone’s view, Bennett’s action was justified, given the culture of institutional racism which pervaded that ward. He was shocked and appalled that staff had felt that they could not enforce a ‘no racism’ policy, though they managed to police a no smoking policy. One staff member had defended this approach, arguing that ‘smoking is important’. How outrageous is that. It was important to tell people not to smoke but not to be racist!!!!! This session clearly demonstrated the racism that still exists within the mental health service which is worrying considering it is black males that will be more frequently given the diagnosis of mental health conditions and what is more worrying is this should have been the Stephen Lawrence case of the mental health word but it has not received as much publicity or media interest. Maybe it’s because it is a mental health story and not a mental health story about us “mad psychos” who go around harming people!!! Members of the audience pointed out that often patients on wards protect each other, rather than staff protecting them, that the European Human Rights Act and Mental Health Bill were not compatible and that the user-led training recommended by the Bennett inquiry was a priority.

The second session, chaired by Richard Brook, Chief Executive of MIND, focused on stigma and discrimination. Its speakers included Rosie Winterton, Minister of State for Health, Ann Beales, Director of Service User Involvement at MACA (www.maca.org.uk) and a service user herself, Kwame McKenzie, psychiatrist and member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and David Crepaz-Keay, Chief Executive of Mental Health Media (www.mhmedia.com) and a service user.

In this session 2 people stood out- the first was David who spoke very honestly about his experiences and the stigma of mental health. We have been working with mental health media over the last 2 years and David is a great speaker. The second speaker was the Minster who really annoyed me and did not seem to understand how much the bill could impact upon people. The session ended with Kwame McKenzie pointing out that this was ‘the only time that the Royal College of Psychiatrists have joined forces with the voluntary sector and charities and carer and user groups to fight anything… everybody who knows anything about psychiatry and who has been in the community is against the Bill as it is.’

The final session was chaired by Gil Hitchon, Chief Executive of Maca, and was on user and carer perspectives. Speakers included Paul Burstow, Lib Dem spokesman on health, speaking from a carers’ perspective, Terry Hammond, Emma Harding, a service user and Joanna Bennett, member of the Breaking the Circles of Fear project and carer of David ‘Rocky’ Bennett.

Joanna Bennett is an awesome speaker and I would recommend any Union to get her in to discuss black students and mental health as well as the mental health bill. The session was very very passionate and included lots of questions and comments including one from our own NUS Women’s Officer Jo Salmon (go to www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/josalmon to find out her thoughts on the day.) For me the comments that summoned up the bill was when one of the speakers passionately declared that if Rosie Winterton really wanted a new framework, she would have to tear up the draft Bill. The current draft ‘should not be signed by a Health Minister, but a Home Office Minister. I have to say that I couldn’t agree more!!! All in all I really enjoyed the rally and it made me even more passionate about the fact that we as a campaign how to continue to lobby about this bill and have to work with other mental health organisations on it.

Another positive thing was that the NUS SWD Campaign has been invited to be a member of the mental health alliance (www.mentalhealth.org.uk). This is a really positive step for us and shows that people now consider the campaign a worthy campaigning and lobbying body that can have influence and support students with disabilities. If you want to know more please do get in touch.

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