Mental Health Bill Racism
Posted on: Sunday, 26 March 2006, 03:03 CST
By Anonymous
The 1990 Trust's ongoing campaign against the Mental Health Bill saw a gathering last month of Black mental health experts and campaigners organised by the Trust.
The trust has long argued that the current proposals for the draft Mental Health Bill will worsen discrimination against Black people, who already suffer disproportionate sectioning, over- medication, and deaths by restraint in mental health institutions.
As reported last issue, the first census of the ethnicity of those using in-patient mental health services shows that Black people have a higher chance of being admitted to hospital under the Mental Health Act, and once in hospital, of experiencing seclusion or physical restraint.
The mental health reception held at the House of Lords, saw mental health experts, including Chinyere lnyama, president of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, warn that unless the Bill is rewritten, Black people could be locked up forever instead of having access to recovery-centred services.
Matilda MacAttram, senior race relations consultant with The 1990 Trust, said The pressure is building on the government to finally listen to the concerns of community leaders, mental health experts, politicians and church leaders, who are coming together to say "we demand a complete rewrite of the Bill to ensure our communities no longer face racism in mental health"'.
Copyright Community Psychiatric Nurses Association Mar 2006
Source: Mental Health Nursing
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