Twitter is people and people are different and people use twitter in different ways

Twitter is people and people are different and people use twitter in different ways.

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Justification

 

It’s been a long day: first I had to explain mental illness to a psychiatrist; then I had to explain mental health cuts to my family. They know. Or they should.

That’s the thing with mental health: you’re always having to explain and justify it in a way you simply don’t have to with physical illness. No cancer doctor would see a new patient without making sure they’d read all the relevant documents first; not so in mental health. No-one would tell a relative that the reason they hadn’t got cancer treatment they needed was because they hadn’t been nice enough to the cancer clinic; not so in mental health. If I had cancer, I’d show up at the clinic and know the doctor would (or should!) have checked the slides and results first; not start from scratch. If I had cancer, family would say how awful it was that cutbacks meant I couldn’t get treatment; not that it must be because of something I’d said or done. It’s bad enough having mental health problems without also having to justify their existence – or your own worthiness to receive help.

Link here.

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Must I stay or can I go?On detaining people pending mental health assessment

 

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Some musings on your rights when people with mental health problems come into contact with healthcare professionals and the mental health system.

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Here are some examples of when you might find yourself detained against your will

 

• You go to A&E after having used self-harm and, after the medical stuff’s been dealt with, the A&E doctor who treated you decides they want a psych assessment done on you by the psychiatric liaison team. They put you in a side room to wait. Time passes and still no-one from psych liaison turns up. You’re hungry. You’re tired. You feel dreadful, waiting alone in that room and decide to leave. You get up to go but there’s a security guard at the door blocking your way. Can you insist they let you go? Or can they hold you there against your will?
• In this same example, what happens if the psych liaison doctor arrives but you don’t find her approach helpful so, shortly after the psychiatric assessment starts, you decide you don’t want to contine with it any more and want to leave. Can you just go? Or can the hospital staff force you to stay to complete the mental health assessment? Can they restrain you – use physical force – to prevent you from leaving?
• You’re in a bad way mentally and police find you in the town centre at midnight crying and shouting. They decide they want you to be assessed by the mental health nurse assigned to their new ‘street triage’ scheme and stick you in the police car to wait. They close the doors to the squad car and they lock automatically, meaning you can’t get out. Do you have to wait there till the street triage nurse arrives? Or can you insist they unlock the car door and let you go?
• You’re on a mental health ward voluntarily but it’s busy and chaotic and you’re not getting the sleep you need to recuperate so you decide to leave. You pack your things, go to the door and ask to be let out – only to be told by staff you cannot leave until the doctor arrives. Do you have to stay? Can you get a chair and try to smash down the door to get out? What can you do to get out of there?

The basic rule of thumb under this country’s laws is you can come and go as you please anywhere, any way, any time of the day or night – unless there’s a specific legal power to stop you from doing so. Generally speaking, only the police can hold you against your will. Even people with mental health problems are protected from arbitrary detention. We too are human beings with rights. Personal liberty is to be respected.

 

However, when it comes to people known or suspected of having mental health problems, there are an awful lot of other professionals who think they have the right to boss you around and stop you from leaving. Often they don’t so, if you find yourself being held against your will, you could call the police and tell them to come and rescue you! There’s all sorts of well-meaning blundering and paternalism in the name of protecting people with mental health problems from ourselves but well-meaning isn’t the same as right or legal.

Here are some thoughts on detaining people against their will when they’ve committed no crime and aren’t suspected of having done so either – legal, illegal or grey area? They are just some preliminary jottings.

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Related links:

• Mental Health Act
• Mental Health Act Code of Practice
• Sessay (2010) (case law interpreting the MHA)

 

 

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Yes, s136 really is a power of arrest!

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I’ve been told so many times by people who really should know better that s136 isn’t an arrest that I thought get it in writing so I can just send a link to this page next time anyone tries to argue the toss with me about it.

Don’t take my word for it, ask the College of Policing’s mental health lead and he’ll put you straight: Yes, s136 really is a power of arrest.

 

s136 really is a power of arrest.

 

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Say “No!” to extending police powers over people in mental health crisis

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My thoughts on the draft Policing and Crime Bill which proposes extending police powers over people in mental health crisis into people’s homes.

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Related links:

• My thoughts on the issue (in tweet form).
• Some thoughts of others (tweets)
• Government press release on the proposed new laws
• The draft Policing and Crime Bill
• Mental Health Cop’s blog post on the issue

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What can you do?

• Write to your MP (they’re the people who vote on new laws) to tell them “No!” to extending police powers over people in mental health crisis: it’s health, not crime.

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Who protects the rights of mental health patients?

 

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Police don’t know the ins and outs of mental health law. Doctors don’t understand the difference between clinical judgment (with all its grey areas) and legal reasoning (which is more black and white) nor the limis of their legal powers. AMHPs are supposed to be the experts. But do they really protect the rights of people with mental health problems? Do hospital managers? Even a specialist mental health and criminal law solicitor got it wrong on important points of law and practice. Who is there for us, looking out for our legal rights, our human rights, when we’re at our most vulnerable?

With Martha Spurrier, former in-house council at mental health charity Mind, joining human rights charity Liberty last week as its new director, will the human rights of people with mental health problems be any more protected?

Some thoughts and conversations and more here, here and here.

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Related links

• Liberty appoints Martha Spurrier as its new director (31 March 2016)
• More about Marha Spurrier‘s work at Doughty Street Chambers before she became director of Liberty

 

 

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