Readers Comments

Introduction

Send Article to a Friend

Add comment to the article (will be checked before display)...

Colin Hambrook (colin dot hambrook at btinternet dot com-NO_SPAM_PLEASE) | www: www.disabilityarts.com | wrote on 25.08.2005 at 16:27:52:
Kiss It Campaign
www.petitiononline.com/kissit/petition.html

This is a very important campaign to petition The British government to have a heart and make meaningful true reforms to the current 'mental health' system.

The methods that are employed by psychiatry and imposed onto those who experience emotionally vulnerable or volatile states are often inhumane and damaging.

In the clinical environment our requirements and needs are rarely met. Our pleas, cries, explanations and experiences are invalidated and recorded as symptoms.

To ensure individuals do not stray too far from the limited and restricted parameters that define the 'norm', psychiatry currently implements: Incarceration, physical restraints, pain compliance techniques, forced drugging, compulsory electro convulsive 'therapy', psychosurgery, coercion and brainwashing ... all of which demonstrate the defectiveness rather than the effectiveness of psychiatric treatment.

The disturbance we may experience in our lives is exacerbated by the aggressive insensitivity and gross inhumanity of such methods. Those who are subjected to these treatments are often damaged and traumatised by them.

Proposed changes to the Mental Health Act will only serve to perpetuate and legitimise cruel, abusive and damaging practices.

We call for a truly consultative radical reform of the 'mental health' system and ultimately an end to hidden psychiatric assault.

This is a human rights issue which is worth fighting for. Please add your name to the petition.

Ray (bongobabe73 at hotmail dot com-NO_SPAM_PLEASE) wrote on 18.08.2005 at 11:13:40:
I HAVE BEEN TO SEVERAL OF THE MEETINGS AND HAVE FOUND IT VERY HELPFUL THAT THE PUBLICS OPINIONS HAVE BEEN HEARD AND THAT WE CAN CONTRIBUTE OUR OPINIONS AS SERVICEUSERS BECAUSE WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM FIRSTHAND. I DO BELIEVE WE SHOULD ALWAYS BE CONSULTED IN HOW THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM WORKS.
IN MY CASE I FEEL THAT ALOT OF MY DIFFICULTIES COULD HAVE BEEN MINIMISED OR DEALT WITH IF I HAD ACCESS TO MORE SUPPORT IN THE EARLIER STAGES OF MY ILLNESS...I RESENT THIS NOT HAPPENING. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE SUPPORT OFFERED TO KEEP PEOPLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH DIFFICULTIES IN THEIR CURRENT JOBS...I HAD TO LEAVE BUT WOULD HAVE APPRECIATED KNOWING IF THERE WAS AVAILABLE SUPPORT TO HELP ME KEEP MY JOB. ALSO I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO BE TOLD OF THE FACILITIES AT WISH DAY HOSPITAL BEFORE I GOT TO THE SUICIDE PLANNING STAGE AND SUBSEQUENT PYCHOSIS...IM SURE THAT IF ID HAD ACCCESS TO THE GROUPS THERE AND A KEY WORKER THEN I WOULD NOT HAVE FELT SO DESPERATE AND MORE SUPPORTED. DESPITE THIS VERY NEGATIVE START THE WISH DAY HOSPITAL WENT ON TO SUPPORT ME MUCH LATER DOWN THE LINE AND THIS WAS EXTREMELY ESSENTIAL TO MY RECOVERY...I CANT EMPHASISE ENOUGH HOW THIS HELPED ME AND THE COUPLE OF YEARS HELP THEY GAVE WAS JUST ENOUGH TIME FOR ME TO BEGIN TO HEAL AND MOVE ON...I FIND THE CURRENT 6 WEEK HELP IS RIDICULOUS...THAT AMOUNT OF TIME WOULD PROBABLY HAVE MADE ME WORSE ...KNOWING I WOULD BE UNDER SUCH A DEADLINE....WOULD ADD TO MY PRESSURES.ANOTHER CRUCIAL PART OF MY MOVING ON HAS BEEN LIMITED EDITIONS...I THINK THERE SHOULD BE MORE OF THESE PLACES WIDELY AVAILABLE BECAUSE THIS HAS INCREASED MY CONFIDENCE IMMMENSLEY AND IS ENCOURAGING ME TO SEE I CAN GAIN THE SKILLS TO GET BACK ON THE CAREER LADDER AGAIN AND BECOME A HEALTHIER INDIVIDUAL.
MY FATHERS TREATMENT WAS NOT NEARLY AS GOOD AS MINE AND I HATE THAT...BEING PUMPED FULL OF DRUGS AND NO REAL EXTRA HELP...NOT SURE IF THIS IS DUE TO HIS AGE...60S....OR HIM BEING SEEN AT A LATER STAGE THAN ME WHEN THE CHANGES HAD STARTED TO TAKE EFFECT AT THE HOSPITAL.