Adferiad Chief Exec welcomes the inclusion of mental health legislation in the King’s Speech but calls on the Prime Minister to remember his roots as a Human Rights Barrister and ensure that any new Mental Health Law properly balances powers and rights.

Today’s King’s Speech, the first of the new Labour Government in Westminster included a commitment to bring forward new legislation to modernise the Mental Health Act 1983. While we welcome all efforts to improve the laws that allow the state to detain people with a mental illness, we believe that the Government should have demonstrated a more ambitious approach than just bringing the law up to date. We believe that they need to develop a completely new Mental Health Act that respects rights, and ensures treatment when needed. We know regrettably, that some people will need to be detained when their mental illness leads them to pose a serious risk to their health and wellbeing or the health and wellbeing of others, but yet there is currently no right to treatment to prevent the need for such detention. Any progressive Government considering the mental health needs of our society must recognise that our current system and approach is broken. We still spend huge sums on locking patients up rather than providing services to them when they, or their families or carers, ask for support to avoid them needing to be hospitalised.

Adferiad’s Chief Executive, Alun Thomas commented,

“Sadly, people living with mental illness, and their families and carers, know that often when they seek help to prevent a mental health crisis, little is available, leading to deterioration, trauma, and in some cases tragedy. The Government needs to recognise that so long as it has the power to detain people for their health condition, they have a duty to provide services to stop people becoming so unwell that they end up being detained. “

“I was part of the Advisory Panel to the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act carried out by Professor Sir Simon Wessely under Teresa May’s government, and unfortunately the recommendations, though pragmatically somewhat limited in scope, were not taken forward. Some of the most significant recommendations would simply have aligned the Mental Health Act with some of the best practice in Wales following the Mental Health (Wales) Measure, others were aimed at improving the rights of those people from communities of colour who often find themselves disproportionately under Mental Health Act, but generally, the key message was that mental health services for people with serious or severe mental illnesses must change and be more focussed on the rights of the patient.”

“I urge the Prime Minister to have some ambition here. He must remember his background as a Human Rights barrister, and demand a Mental Health Act which means that fewer people are detained because they have been able to receive treatment before they become so unwell that we lock them up! This is not only the most humane and compassionate approach, but it is massively more cost effective both for the NHS, but also for the patients and their families.”

Adferiad works with over 20,000 people each year, and we will be engaging with them, their families and carers, legal experts, partner charities, and policy makers, to ensure that any new legislation truly reflects the needs to those it affects.

Our expert staff and volunteers work alongside and support people to look holistically at their lives and make improvements to live with dignity and as independently as possible. Our members elect our Trustees who lead on the decision making of the charity. As part of this, we also provide a national and local voice for our clients/members and campaign alongside them to reform policy and law, improve services and challenge discrimination.

Our support includes a range of local, regional and national mental health and substance use services for our clients, carers, and families; which include:

• Housing support including provision of high needs supported accommodation, and delivery of homelessness prevention services.
• Community Support including drop in and resource centres.
• Drug and alcohol treatment & structured recovery programmes
• Residential Rehabilitation / Detoxification (including for clients with Gambling support needs)
• Emotional and social support through one-to-one sessions and group work.
• Structured self-help programmes.
• Family and carer support services including group work, information services, access to grants etc.
• Employment, mentoring, and volunteering support.
• Registered care
• Crisis interventions including out of hours sanctuaries.
• Therapeutic interventions (including counselling)
• Money and Financial advice
• User involvement services

To find out more about our services please visit: www.adferiad.org, email: press@adferiad.org or phone 01792 816 600.