Submission from Rethink (SC-78)
Rethink is the leading national mental health
membership charity, and we work to help everyone affected by severe
mental illness recover a better quality of life. We have over
8,300 members and support around 50,000 people each
year through our services, support groups and by providing information
on mental health.
Given our close links with people affected by
severe mental illness and our long-standing efforts to fully involve
them in our campaigning work, we know that our beneficiaries seek
a more representative Parliament with members who both understand
mental illness and feel able to talk about their own experiences
of it.
We believe that this conference offers a significant
opportunity to eliminate the discriminatory legislation which
prevents people with experience of mental illness from standing
for Parliament and hope that it will consider action to encourage
greater and more open discussions in Parliament of the ways in
which mental illness has impacted on the lives of hon. Members,
their families and friends. We would like to ensure the following
issues are considered.
REPEAL SECTION
141 OF THE
MENTAL HEALTH
ACT
Under section 141 of the 1983 Mental
Health Act, an MP can be removed from their seat if they are detained
under the powers of the Act for six months or more. There is no
provision for any hearing and no locus for the MP to represent
themselves. This procedure therefore breaches Article 6 of
the European Convention on Human Rights, as incorporated in the
Human Rights Act 1998. Interestingly, no equivalent provisions
deal with members of the House of Lords.
Also, no such provision exists for when people
are hospitalised with a physical illness so this legislation carries
symbolic weight and reinforces the notion that people affected
by mental illness are incapable of work and unlikely to recover.
Former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik proved this
to be untrue when he spoke to the UK Parliament about his experience
of mental ill health when in office as he recovered and went on
to be re-elected for a second term.
As Earl Howe stated:
"Section 141 is about the most blatant
piece of discrimination against mental illness as it is possible
to imagine in statute. What message would be sent out if it were
ever invoked? The message would be that mental illness is equivalent
to gross misconduct, on which the Speaker would have no alternative
but to take drastic disciplinary action. It would be equivalent
to saying that being mentally ill makes you unfit to work and
unfit to represent your constituency. I cannot believe that that
is what we want the law to require the Speaker in the other place
to do, so I very much hope that the Government will think again
about Section 141".[220]
Such a law clearly undermines people's confidence
to stand for election and become a Member of Parliament. We therefore
urge the Speaker's Conference and the Government to repeal Section
141 of the Mental Health Act and remove this outdated and
discriminatory ban.
STIGMA SURROUNDING
MENTAL ILLNESS
The stigma surrounding mental health problems
is all pervasive with 9 out of 10 people saying they
have experienced discrimination at home, in work and in the community.[221]
The first step in challenging it is by bringing mental health
into the open, and talking about its impact in the same way that
we would physical conditions like cancer or heart disease.
A recent anonymous survey from the All Party
Parliamentary Group on Mental Health found that one in five MPs
who responded had some personal experience of a mental health
problem. However, most felt unable to share their experiences
and viewed work-based stigma and a hostile media reaction as barriers
to greater openness:
"We have seen huge changes in attitudes
towards homosexuality and transgender since people became more
open
a similar transformation could take place if more people
touched by mental illness talked about their experiences."[222]
Anonymous MP
At the recent launch of our Time to Change campaign
in Parliament, MPs told Rethink that they had experienced mental
illness themselves, but that they would not feel able to speak
openly about this for fear of the repercussions in the media,
from colleagues in the House and from their constituents. Such
a strong response highlights that Parliament needs to change.
It will never appear representative if those MPs who do share
some of our members' experiences feel unable to talk about them
openly. Also, MPs cannot possibly represent people affected by
mental illness if they are ashamed of being associated with it
themselves. This message has come out strongly through our 'Rethink
Politics' project.
RETHINK POLITICS
Working with the Electoral Commission, we are
currently undertaking "Rethink Politics", a three-year
campaign to increase the political awareness and participation
of people affected by mental illness. This work aims to address
the issues of democratic disengagement within the mental health
community.
This project has trained over 200 service
users and carers to better understand democratic processes and
has brought them into direct contact with a range of elected officials
including MPs and Ministers. The frequent feedback we received
following these events with politicians was that their MPs seem
much more accessible, "like real people".[223]
As such, we recommend more work of this kind whereby Members of
Parliament spend more time meeting with constituents, particularly
those who might be prone to social exclusion, to ensure that they
understand the political system and how they can engage with it.
Participants have voiced concerns about politicians
seeming to have a low level of awareness about mental illness.
In our research for this project, one participant noted the following:
"I have always played my part in voting.
What really puts me off politicians is discrimination and them
not understanding or listening to all of the issues, especially
from people with mental illness".[224]
This project has also highlighted members concerns
that politicians appear to be immune to mental illness as they
do not openly discuss it in relation to themselves or their families
(as noted above). Either through politicians not raising these
issues, or people with mental health problems being less likely
to enter Parliament, it appears that there are significant groups
that are either under represented or completely lacking in representation.
As one in four people will be affected by mental health problems
we feel that this is a failure to reflect Britain in the House
of Commons and this undermines its legitimacy.
This is exactly the kind of under representation
that must be tackled. We therefore urge the Speaker's conference
to focus on these issues to help ensure that the Commons is truly
representative of British society. Rethink would welcome an opportunity
to offer oral evidence to the conference, or to invite a mental
health service user or carer to speak to the conference to outline
their views.
Alongside this response, we enclose the All
Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health's report, Mental health
in Parliament which offers further detail on some of these points.[225]
220 Mental Health In Parliament (2008), Report by the
All Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health. Back
221
Stigma Shout: Service user and carer experiences of stigma and
discrimination, (2008), Time to Change. Back
222
Ibid. Back
223
Rethink Politics evaluation (2008), Rethink, unpublished. Back
224
Your Shout (2007), Rethink Politics, unpublished. Back
225
Information provided, not printed. Back
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