BMH: Government Bill condemned as damaging to Black communities

Wednesday, 16, May 2007 12:00

In a letter to The Times, published today, politicians, community leaders and the heads of the UK’s largest church umbrella groups have signed up to the call to see race equality principles added to the face of the 2006 Mental Health Bill in order to avoid making the mental health crisis in African Caribbean communities worse.

Lord Carlile QC, Chair of the Draft Mental Health Bill Scrutiny Committee, Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey, Rev Pedro Okoro, chair of ACEA , Lee Jasper – chair of African Caribbean Mental Health Commission are among the church, political and community leaders who have added their support to Black Mental Health UK’s call for major amendments to the hugely unpopular 2006 Mental Health Bill before it becomes law.

Over twenty signatories supported the statement that the discriminatory way in which the 1983 Act has been used has led to a crisis in black mental health and support the call for race equality principles to be added to the face of the Bill in order to address this. Detention rates of people from African Caribbean communities are 44% higher than British white people. Once in the system they are more likely to be misdiagnosed, overmedicated, forcibly restrained and placed in seclusion despite having similar rates of mental ill health as other ethnic groups.

‘This Bill will directly touch the lives of every black family in this country in the most negative way unless radically changed and race equality principles are added to the face of the Bill,’ Matilda MacAttram director of Black Mental Health UK said.

‘These changes are likely to last for over 20 years which makes this process a once in a generation opportunity to provide a proper legal framework that addresses the systemic discrimination within the services. We owe it to posterity to ensure that the Bill addresses this.’ Rev Pedro Okoro, lawyer and chair of ACEA said.

‘In a year that marks the bicentennial anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire it would be unconscionable for the Government to abandon these citizens, who seem to have no rights and no voice to these proposals,’ The Times letter concludes.

Notes to the editor

? Black Mental Health UK campaign for justice in the 2006 Mental Health Bill can be access at www.blackmentalhealth.org.uk

? Black Mental Health UK’s online petition is calling for race equality principles to be added to the face of the 2006 Mental Health Bill. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/mentalheath/.

? BMH UK campaign supporters include ACMHC (African Caribbean Mental Health Commission) ,ACEA (African Caribbean Evangelical Alliance), BPA (Black Police Association), The Society of Black Lawyers, The Mental Health Alliance, Inquest, 100 Black Men of London, Keep The Faith, Revolving Doors, Ligali, The 1990 Trust, Operation Black Vote and The Black Londoner’s Forum

? African Caribbean’s are 44% more likely to be sectioned, 29% more likely to be forcibly restrained, 50% more likely to be placed in seclusion and make up 30% of in patients on medium secure psychiatric wards despite having similar rates of mental illness as British white people.

Signatories to the letter in The Times on 2006 Mental Health Bill and it’s impact on African Caribbean communities.

1. Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey

2. Baroness Neuberger, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson in the House of Lords

3. Lord Carlile QC, Chair of the Draft Mental Health Bill Scrutiny Committee

4. Lord Dholakia, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman in the House of Lords

5. Baroness Elaine Murphy, a Cross-Bench peer

6. Sarah Teather MP, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Brent East

7. Lee Jasper – Chair of African Caribbean Mental Health Commission

8. Bevan Powell – deputy Chair - Metropolitan Black Police Association

9. Chinyere Inayama – mental health lawyer, part time judge

10. Prof Kwame McKenzie – consultant psychiatrist, academic advisor to the government on mental health

11. Prof Suman Fernando – consultant psychiatrist, academic and campaigner

12. Dr Richard Stone – panel member on David Bennett and Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and David Bennett Inquiry

13. Prof. Sashi Sashidharan – panel member on the David Bennett Inquiry

14. Rev Pedro Okoro – lawyer Chair of ACEA - African Caribbean Evangelical Alliance –Europe’s largest church umbrella organisation

15. Bishop Dr Joe Aldred, Secretary, Minority Ethnic Christian Affairs (MECA) Churches Together in England.

16. Pastor Desmond Hall – Chair Christian’s Together in Brent

17. David Weaver – Chair of The 1990 Trust

18. Karen Chouchan – chair of the Peepul Centre

19. Simon Wolley – Operation Black Vote

20. Eroll Walters – Director – Black Londoners Forum

Richmond Fellowship – Making Recovery Reality

RF, a registered charity, is a leading national specialist in holistic mental health care working in the community to facilitate the recovery of people with mental health needs.

www.richmondfellowship.org.uk