The Independent on Sunday continues its campaign for the fourth week today,
with a front page lead story (below) and six other stories (title and links
below). The lead story focuses on the the draft mental health bill and
includes the comment from
Alan Franey, former chief executive of Broadmoor, that the proposals are
"harmful". The other stories are a good mix and I was particularly
interested in the piece by Jeremy Laurance who has researched INSIDE mental
hospitals up and down the country for his book 'Pure Madness: how fear
drives the mental health system' which will be published by Routledge in the
autumn.
(Full story Mental Health: The Fear Factory
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310448 )

A Channel 5 tv programme "Inside Broadmoor" is to be screened by Channel 5
on 23 July, in which Alan Franey, former mental health boss, says the
hospital has reverted to its restrictive policies of the 1960s and 1970s.
This includes segregating men and women as well as denying patients home
visiting rights.
(Full story Mental health proposals 'very harmful'
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310563 )

The three previous weeks' stories from the Independent on Sunday can be
found on the website www.independent.co.uk by putting "Broadmoor" in the
"search this site" box.

The treatment of the mentally ill that shames us all
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310576
Today psychiatrists attack the draft Mental Health Bill as 'morally
indefensible and ethically corrupt'. For three weeks the IoS has campaigned
on mental health issues, and we share their revulsion at plans for detention
without trial and forcible injections. Britain's mentally ill have a right
to be heard. We will give them a voice

By Sophie Goodchild and Colin Brown Political Editor
30 June 2002
The treatment of the mentally ill that shames us all
The Government's Bill to lock up the mentally ill before they have committed
any offence is condemned today by the professional body which will have to
implement it as "ethically corrupt" and "morally indefensible".
The attack by the Royal College of Psychiatrists - one of the most extreme
by a professional body against government policy since Tony Blair came to
power - is reinforced by the Law Society, Labour MPs and opposition parties.
A powerful alliance of cross-party and professional opposition was last
night forming behind the campaign led by The Independent on Sunday for
justice for the mentally ill who are being denied their civil liberties in
some of Britain's most high-security mental institutions.
The draft Mental Health Bill published last week by Alan Milburn, Secretary
of State for Health, will close a loophole that let Michael Stone go free
before murdering Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan, even
though he had been diagnosed with a dangerous personality disorder.
It will require mentally disordered people to submit to compulsory
treatment, but critics believe it will force psychiatrists to act as police,
locking up people before they have committed crimes.
Controversy over the treatment of the dangerously mentally ill was fuelled
this weekend by the disclosure that a man who attacked 11 churchgoers with a
samurai sword had been released into the community from a high-security
mental hospital after just 21 months.
Under the new Bill, such patients could be forced to undergo treatment
against their wishes even when released into the community. Those with
dangerous personality disorder could be detain indefinitely, even though
they had committed no offence.
The Government faces a possible Labour rebellion unless it backs down over
the most contentious parts of the bill. David Hinchliffe, the Labour
chairman of the Commons select committee on health, told the IoS he could
not vote for the Bill unless it were amended.
Liam Fox, the Tory spokesman on health, said the Opposition would vote
against the Bill as currently drafted. "We are deeply concerned about the
powers over the rights of patients who have committed no offence."
Warning that it will shame our society, Dr Tony Zigmond, a spokesman for the
Royal College, said: "It was driven entirely by the Home Office. It came out
of the Michael Stone and Christopher Clunis cases. If you have an
argumentative son who drinks too much and gets stroppy, he could be detained
under these proposals. We think it is morally indefensible and ethically
corrupt."
He compares the measures to the discredited internment powers in Northern
Ireland in an article today in the IoS. And he warned that some
psychiatrists would not co-operate with the Government if the legislation
reaches the statute book in its present form. He said: "We do not believe
psychiatrists should be used as agents of social control."
Alan Franey, the former chief executive of Broadmoor, yesterday branded the
proposals "harmful" and a "breach of human rights". Professor John Gunn,
chairman of the faculty of forensic psychiatry, who runs a clinic at
Broadmoor, condemned them as "unworkable".

Churchgoers not told of release of 'samurai' attacker
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310566

Mental health proposals 'very harmful'
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310563

Mental Health: The Fear Factory
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310448

Mental Health: 'My doctor sent me to A&E. They offered me tea'
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310444

Mental Health: Have you any idea what kind of life someone detained in
hospital leads?
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310443

Mental Health: 'You could say I am a mad psychologist'
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=310434


posted by rosemary
Surrey UK
www.mentalmagazine.co.uk
"Campaigning for good health & social care...it's for everyone"