Memorandum submitted by
the Rutland Healing Group (MH 3)
1. In the second reading of the Mental Health Bill in the Lords on
Tuesday, 28th November 2006 the minister of state, Department of
Health Lord Warner said:
"It is clear that there is now scope for
some patients to be treated under compulsory powers but to live in the
community, not in hospital. For suitable patients, supervised community
treatment meets the need for a framework for their treatment and safe
management in the community, instead of detention in hospital."
The
Rutland Healing Group welcomes this change, as do many other charities and
groups concerned about improving mental health services. Lord Warner continues in his learned way
that:
"Supervised
community treatment is a new, modern and effective way to manage the treatment
of patients with serious mental health problems. It will allow patients, so far
as possible, to live normal lives in the community. This will reduce the risk
of social exclusion and stigma associated with detention in hospital for long
periods of time or with repeated hospital admissions."
This
has proved and will continue to prove, we pray, to be true.
2. However we are
concerned with the loss of rights that CTO's may bring. Still the Lords, as other members of the
community, fail to recognize that mental health patients have human rights and
should not have to fight for their survival.
Lord Warner says patients will be given "the ability to apply to the
county court to displace the nearest relative if they believe they are
unsuitable". Why should patients have
to go to court? Should not it be the
social workers, doctors and relatives who have to go to court to prove a
patient does not have capacity. In the
21st Century Rutland Healing Group, made up of users, past-users,
carers and professionals, believes we have free-will as humans to choose health
treatment. Nowadays there are many
therapies and remedies far better than anything the NHS can offer that can
actually heal mental health problems.
No-one needs to be forced onto drugs anymore.
3. The Lord Bishop
of Manchester points out that "The Bill seeks to strike a balance between the
rights and autonomy of patients and the safety of both patients and the
public." The Lord Bishop recognises how
this Christian country should be governed by Jesus' authority and we should:
"treat others as we would wish to be treated" Luke 6:31. Nobody would wish to be deprived of their
freedom especially if they were ill.
Doctors should be encouraged to seek the will of the patient rather than
be given the opportunity to disregard it.
The Rutland Healing Group looks to the government to give mental health
patients the same rights as any other patient.
How can anyone determine someone does not have the capacity to decide? If someone wants to end their life what
right do relatives have to stop them?
In fact the patient should be given every help to improve their life
with counselling, homeopathy (Aurora Mur is brilliant for suicidal feelings)
and centring prayer. If this does not
work then euthanasia should be allowed rather than pyschiatric drugs with the
most dreadful side effects that only makes the situation worse.
4. Rutland Healing Group has noticed in many cases
patients have been persecuted because of religious beliefs. The Lord Bishop
indicates: "Compulsory detention and treatment should be based strictly on
mental disorder and should certainly not be used for the purpose of social
control." This very often is the case
and we, as users and past-users, look to the government to protect us from
this. Many service users have been
deprived of their freedom because of their behaviour as evangelists. Relatives and professionals feel threatened
by someone's 'high' behaviour as they minister to others, preach the gospel and
lay on hands for healing. Surely in the
21st century the public should be protected from this as mental
health professionals should not be 'guardians of public safety'.
5. We ask the
government to recognize the needs of public safety and agree with Lord Bishop
of Manchester that "Those who are untreatable but are believed
to pose a serious risk to other people should be dealt with under criminal
justice rather than mental health legislation." The government, the public and the media should stop mixing up
violence with mental health the two are separate.
6. "The Government have decided not to include a provision
for advocacy services in the Bill" this is a concern for Baroness Morgan of
Drefelin as for the Rutland Healing Group.
One of our services is to help with independent advocacy which is
provided on a volunteer basis. Many
patients turn to help from the mental health advocate because they receive
non-discrimanatory treatment to prevent avoidable distress and suffering. We support patients in ward-rounds in
hospitals, revues in the community, court-cases and give supportive and
counselling care. This should be
encouraged by the bill and the government should recognize the extreme benefit
of the professional use (as advocates, group co-ordinators, nurses, trainers
and teachers of good mental health practice) of users and past-users. Baroness
Meacher supports the RHG view that:
"
The Royal College of Psychiatrists rightly points out that patients' choice and
participation in their own care are central tenets in the new NHS. In a crisis,
however, patients may not have the capacity to exercise their autonomy. Advance
statements, setting out both what a patient wishes to occur and what treatment
they would refuse in the event of being detained and lacking capacity, are
gaining currency as useful and empowering tools for service users. In my humble
opinion, the Bill needs to make provision for those statements."
7. We should be less pre-occupied with crisis intervention
and more focused on what we can learn from our past mistakes. As Baroness Morgan made clear: "I am
concerned about the ethical position with regard to the use of treatment
without specific or potential benefit to the patient for the purposes of control." Rutland Healing Group has been helping the
PPI Forum for the Leicestershire Partnership with some research into the
efficacy of homeopathy. Ms. Elizabeth
Maitland chair of the RHG has been cured by homeopathy and recognizes its great
benefits because of lack of
side-effects and its ability to deal with emotional trauma due to shock, fear,
grief and stress. She says "Homeopathy
has no stigma and I can now go through a difficult time in my life and have no
fear of the dreadful torture of pyschiatric drugs or hospitalisation because
homeopathy always sorts out the problems in days". Ms Maitland has done extensive research into homeopathy and
discovered it is a cure for mental illness.
Allopathy (NHS Medecine) gets rid of the symptoms and drives the mental
illness in; while homeopathy, in a controlled and gentle manner, acclerates the
symptoms and gets them and root of the illness out of the system. The body learns to cure itself. "It is brilliant and is a gift from God" she
says. All the plants are pure and uncontaminated
and given by Jesus "as a healing for the nations" .
8. This nation has to wisen up to the fact that pyschiatry
is dangerous. As Baroness Morgan says:
"But let no one be under any illusion: the most common cause of death for
people between the ages of 15 and 34 is suicide." The Rutland Healing Group is concerned about the lack of autonomy
that CTO's may bring. People commit
suicide because of lack of control over their life. We believe if we have CTO's as is suggested this may double the
trouble we have already with suicide.
Already if the statistics are known most suicides are committed by
overdosing on psychiatric drugs and many people agree that some of these drugs
actually cause suicidal feelings (look at reports on Seroxat in particular).
"Each year approximately 380 detained patients die in care, and about a quarter
of the deaths are termed "unnatural"; that is, they are suicides, occur in
suspicious circumstances and so on." Lord Patel of Bradford has reported. This is because of patients being termed
'without the capacity' to be in charge of their treament. They are dehumanised, forced unaturally and
against their will to take drugs. This
is what causes them to suicide. The RHG
hopes the world and our government will recognize this now and take steps to prevent
these suicides by forbidding compulsion.
9. In his oral evidence to the Joint Committee that
scrutinised the 2004 draft Bill, Dr Tony Zigmond, the vice-president of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists, said,
"so any law that drives people away from the service, I have to say,
increases risks for everybody and damages health ... we need to get people to
come and see us".
RHG proposes that the government takes
courage into its hands and disposes of compulsion within this new Mental Health
Act. People will still be forced onto
drugs by the NHS depend on it. But it
will be with words, comforting, loving and encouraging words by people who seem
to care. Surely the government can see
that in the 21st Century humans are capable of acting in God's
image. They are as able to talk a
person into the right treatment as to force them. Two thousand plus years after the resurrection of Christ surely
we can let Him take control and give humanity 'free-will of mental
health'. Believe it ...IT IS POSSIBLE.
April 2007
