Lobby of Parliament over the Mental Health Bill - 28/11/06

As someone who has sampled the open-minded services of the mental health system (hint of sarcasm there) I just wanted to make people aware that the dreaded streamlined Mental Health Bill is being published this month and the Mental Health Alliance (umbrella of groups campaigning against this Bill) have organised a mass lobby of Parliament on November 28th.

According to the campaign, the lobby will be to raise awareness among MPs and persuade them to support our campaign against worrying aspects of the proposed Mental Health Bill. It is crucial that we get as many people along as possible to show our MPs how much of an effect the proposed Mental Health Bill will have on people's lives.

A taster of the proposals include:

Extending compulsory treatment into the community

Independent advocacy has not been included in the Bill

Changing the definition of Mental Disorder

The shortened version of the Bill keeps many of the proposals from the previous scrapped Bill (March 2006). There are also plans regarding personality disorder.

So, the civil liberties of people labelled with mental distress will be going even quicker down the sink. More coercion and containment but hey, at least society will be safer as us nutters will be locked up!

Don’cha feel safer already?