1 comment to Harriet Harman: I strongly agree with my hon. Friend's comments about Croydon...
(posted on 19 Oct 2007)
Harriet,
For you attention below are the statistics from Women's Aid for how
many Women are murdered by there partner's and it is 2 per week not 2
per year
Key statistics: Did you know that domestic violence kills over two women per week?
What is domestic violence?
In Women's Aid's view domestic violence is physical, sexual,
psychological or financial violence that takes place within an intimate
or family-type relationship and that forms a pattern of coercive and
controlling behaviour.
How common is domestic violence?
1 in 4 women experience domestic vioelnce in their lifetime and
between 1 in 8 to 1 in 10 women experience it annually. Less than half
of all incidents are reported to the Police, but they still receive one
domestic violence call every minute in the UK.
Taken from the Womens Aid Website
www.womensaid.org
(posted on 19 Oct 2007)
18 million is a lot of money, I would very much like to see the business plan on how they intend on spending this money.
When soaps like Eastenders are still producing storylines like the recent one about Steven Wicks is it any wonder that the general public still fear those with mental illness as being bad and dangerous, not very encouraging.
Or there portrayal of Stacey Slater's mum, where all Stacey can say to her is "keep taking the tablets mum" The two actors involved in this storyline won an award from mental health media, whatever next?
Is there any hope for any of us if the public are persuaded that medication is the answer to all our woes
Medication is not always the solution and the consequences of the side effects are having a huge detrimental impact on many who are subjected to taking them, causing liver damage, and other serious long term medical conditions.
I do hope that SHIFT get a shift on and hold the scriptwriters and editors etc to task over such an important issue. When they have such an outreaching influence on those who watch and read this damaging material
1 comment to Margaret : My Lords, is it not the case that science is not a fixed...
(posted on 11 May 2007)
I have been going to a homeopath for over 20 years, I was diagnosed with pre-cervical cancer at 17 as I knew of several women who had used the NHS's treatment methods and had ended up not only without wombs but also dead I decided to seek an alternative, which has been successful I no longer have any sign of cancer and at my last smear was told I had an incredibly healthy cervix for a woman of my age now 44...Yet I was constantly told by my GP at that time he would not be held responsible if I died and that if I had children they would be born blind....With the NHS's new "Book and Choose" why am I and others with mental health issues excluded from this system...Why because you would have a case of the rats leaving a sinking ship and it would show up those who are less than caring or helpful within Mental Health Services...and that we do not all wish to pollute are bodies with toxic medication that causes worse side effects and conditions than the dis-ease itself. Many would seek alternatives which are not owned by the pharmaceutical companies.Stop this ridiculous talk about social inclusion when it is such a farce. If I am to be socially included I want CHOICE
They the NHS also declare that they do not know how or why electric shock treatment works, but still use this barbaric treatment and no one is had up for torture or sadistic behaviour it should be abolished immediately what are you thinking!!! If I went home and put an electric current through my cat's scull I'd be imprisoned and rightly so. So why is it OK to inflict this horrendous TREATMENT on a fellow human being just because you wear a white coat.
Extract from LINDA GOODMANS STAR SIGNS chapter an apple a day
Chinese medicine
There were three types of doctors in ancient China. The first kind merely cured your disease, and was the least of the three. The second was an expert in diagnosing an illness, not only after it appeared, but earlier, shortly before it appeared. He was higher on the medical ladder. The most skilled, most venerable, and most respected physical was the one who kept his patients so healthy that they never manifested any form of sickness in the first place, a Taoist ideal. The medical caste system was nothing if logical.
And it went further. A doctor in ancient China was paid only when his patients got well, when he had healed them and in some districts the doctor was under strict obligation to make economic amends or restitution should a patient become worse or continue to be ill under his care, because it was considered that, if he had not kept his patients healthy, then their diseases were fully his responsibility.
Every time a patient died, a lantern of a certain shape was hung outside the attending doctors office, and a doctor with too many of these lanterns swinging at the front door could be assured of a slow business. Physicians who complain today about high insurance caused by malpractice suits should be glad they werent practising in ancient China.
Linda Goodman
1 comment to Tony Blair: According to the information I have here, in Northamptonshire...
(posted on 11 May 2007)
A huge amount of inmates are actually those that the government released into society under the banner of so-called care in the community, which did not support those it proclaimed to help so they have ended up in a far worse sort of institution that provides no care for those who have experienced mental health problems.
Just as the Conservatives got the unemployment figures down when in power by putting those with long-term medical problems on incapacity benefit masquerading that unemployment had gone down. Now Labour are trying to reduce the numbers of those on incapacity benefit by withdrawing day services up and down the country and pushing many back into work, and onto job programmes. With no consideration of the consequences. When so many have been told for years by their doctors/psychiatrists that they will never work again, and in the process terrifying many into God knows what!!!...
Where is the love and care for our fellow human beings
communitycare 5 Oct 2005
Decline in psychiatric beds leaves mentally ill in prison
Prisons have become asylums for mentally ill offenders because of a decline in the number of NHS psychiatric beds, the Zahid Mubarek inquiry has heard.
In a written submission to the inquiry which is in its final stage today, Michael Howlett, director of charity the Zito Trust said: We have allowed a situation to develop over the years in which prisons have become psychiatric asylums by default.
There were around 154, 000 NHS psychiatric beds in England and Wales in 1954, but this was reduced to about 30,000 by 2002, according to figures quoted by Howlett.
He told the inquiry: We are now trying to rectify this by implementing NHS-style strategies in institutions which are not only over-crowded, but also culturally not necessarily sympathetic or receptive.
According to the prison and probation service submission to the inquiry, an estimated 9 out of 10 prisoners suffer from at least one mental disorder.
The inquirys final report is expected in February.
1 comment to Charles Walker: I have paid fulsome tribute to the speeches of Members this...
(posted on 4 May 2007)
I couldn't agree more, it is scandalous how the papers are getting aware with the scare mongering of late if I didn't know any better I would assume they are in cahoots with the timing of this bill to terrorise the general public into supporting a thing they know very little about. You are preaching to the converted it is the general public that need to be aware of the draconian measures that the government sorts to inflict on the few. We should be promoting the wealth and creativity of the many who function well in spite of having a mental health diagnosis, and some of which believe it is because they do.
1 comment to Rosie Winterton: I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way as there is a point...
(posted on 4 May 2007)
Drugging people for their so called own good is not treatment. The word treatment as you define it seems to only apply to medication. There are many other alternatives to medication but the NHS spends so much on prescription drugs and too many mangagers that these alternatives never get a look in. When did you decide to take away a person's right to commit suicide.
As sad as it is, it is an individuals decision and not the governments!
1 comment to Patricia Hewitt: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the same "Avoidable Deaths"...
(posted on 4 May 2007)
Not if they kill themselves on leaving hospital before they have contact with any professionals which seems to be so often the case
1 comment to Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. I am...
(posted on 4 May 2007)
I am so glad that you all seem to be shocked by these cruel devices. What about the electric shock devices so cruelly used on defenceless patients in psychiatric wards up and down the country daily. Where is the outcry for them!
1 comment to Rosie Winterton: It is absolutely tragic to hear about such cases. The hon....
(posted on 26 Apr 2007)
Do you think for one moment that a CTO would have saved poor Fiona, she was totally ignored when she knew exactly what she needed, more time on the ward, yet she was ignored and died before she was even able to meet with so-called health care professionals.
When are you going to realise that patients know what they need and when they need it, but if it does not fall in with the NHS system's decisions this is the sort of thing that happens
How many suicides have occured before the patient was able to get community treatment on leaving hospital?
1 comment to Rosie Winterton: My hon. Friend is right to say that this is an extremely...
(posted on 26 Apr 2007)
Rather a clinical or legal straitjacket than a real one, think yourself lucky that you may never know what a real one feels like
1 comment to Rosie Winterton: No, I will not. One of the problems with the House of Lords...
(posted on 26 Apr 2007)
It would seem that the minister is only concerned with the so called problems the Lords ammendments will have on her, the child is the important one and no 16 or 17-year old will ever be better placed on an adult ward, no matter how convenient it is for you or the clinician
1 comment to Rosie Winterton: We have made a commitment to eliminate within two years the...
(posted on 26 Apr 2007)
How many other youngsters will be subjected to the things Lois and Antonia went through within this 2 year period? Any is too many.
A 16 year old is still far to young to be put on an adult ward in the first place
How soon can the Department react to the report of a youngster being placed on an adult ward and what is the appropriate action that they will take?
1 comment to Tim Loughton: Yesterday in Committee Room 16, in front of MPs and Members...
(posted on 26 Apr 2007)
I was present at this committee meeting and heard these 2 harrowing accounts from Lois and Antonia these 2 girls should be applauded for being brave enough to speak up at such a meeting. If only we could have heard from the many other youngsters across the country who have undergone a similar experience.
The need for adequate facilities and qualified staff for the young is crucial, and as the figures for the young in this system is going up they should be readily available, and local, these young are the future
I would have liked to have raised the point, that most of these wards are not suitable or appropriate for adults, as anyone who is a patient is extremely vulnerable and the utmost care and attention needs to be given, not the case with under staffing and far too many agency staff who have not established any sort of relationship with those they are there to care for.
I still say that in this day and age we should be providing single sex accommodation across the board and that women's wards should only have female staff and the same for men, men looking after men, which would at least alleviate some of the abuse that is committed.
Whether the incident is committed by a fellow patient and or a member of staff, there should be emergency rape kits and evidence kits on the wards so when an assault has been committed protocol is set into motion allowing evidence to be taken, photographs of bruising, blood, semen and the state of the room as an absolute minimum.
The following 19 rape allegations are just the tip of the iceberg, as how many incidents went unreported during 2003 to 2005 (Read Minds Ward Watch)
As we know from community care magazine and Louis Appleby
Most of the 19 rape allegations made in psychiatric wards from 2003 to 2005 are subject to "significant doubt", the government has claimed.
Mental health "tsar" Louis Appleby said "after collecting information from local trusts he doubted whether 13 of the incidents actually happened as several allegations were made "when the patients' mental state was severely disturbed"
Being mad should not automatically make you a liar or because you are "severely disturbed" you do not know fact from fiction there is no medical proof of this is there?
You maybe severely disturbed because you have been sexually abused and no one is listening to you, these patients are being subjected to discrimination and exclusion, we do not accept having less rights because of our diagnosis, many patients who have been raped on wards believe the use of hallucinatory drugs is a deliberate procedure to make allegations they make doubted and difficult to prove or follow up.
We are human beings who need to be heard and respected, no matter our diagnosis, ethnicity, creed, religion or age!!
How many people have been prosecuted for abusing a patient on a psychiatric ward from 2003 to 2005 or for that matter the last decade in comparison to all the allegations for that period?
1 comment to Vincent Cable: As it happens, the case to which I referred was more acute...
(posted on 18 Apr 2007)
It is so sad that the NHS is blinded to the fact that many people self medicate with alcohol and or drugs.
They are then penalised by the very system that should be helping them.
Surely there needs to be greater understanding that those who have been bruised by life use whatever means necessary to numb their sadness & distress.
Especially when the services they need do not exist in the first place!
Worse still is the easy access to allsorts of pharmaceutical drugs
readily available on the internet.
I am inundated with drug offers every time I open my email.
Am I being targeted because I am known to have used Mental Health services and they have access to that information somehow or are they aimed at everyone and Im just being more paranoid than usual!
Why arent the Government doing something about this disgraceful advertising projected at those who are already in a vulnerable state.
1 comment to Tim Loughton: We have had a very interesting debate. I add my...
(posted on 18 Apr 2007)
With regards to the Draft Mental Health Bill, I see the Police Federation, did not give oral evidence to the Scrutiny Committee.
Surely it is vital that we hear from the Police, this Bill will have huge repercussions on them, and the Public.
An increase in the use of 136 sections will be inevitable. (This is of great concern to me having been 136 sectioned. My first and thankfully only encounter to an incredibly frightening system.)
Should this Bill go through far more resources are required. For instance I am aware that cadets In West Kent are only given an hour and a half of diversity training. This is nowhere nearly sufficient, if this Bill goes through we must have an intensive training for not only cadets but for all our bobby's on the beat.
Are the Police preparing for the rise in 136 sectioning, and is it possible to track down the figures for these sort of detentions. I believe that they are held by the Home Office. This must have been researched, so could we get the prediction figures for the next few years? As we should be prepared for the true impact of this Bill.
What is the opinion of the Police?
Are they getting adequate Mental Health training across the country?
A place of safety is not a Police cell....
1 comment to Philip Hunt: My Lords, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State...
(posted on 20 Mar 2007)
if you stop sending them to war you will save billions and not cause mental distress in the process