A new mental health strategy will entail the close supervision of patients with mental illness either in hospital or local secure units and clinics. Several hundred million pounds of extra funding will be required, as well as fundamental changes to the Mental Health Act. An early measure will be the setting up of a national network of "assertive outreach teams" as part of a drive to provide humane round the clock support in the community for the most seriously ill patients. The new teams--health led but working closely with social services--will be in constant contact with patients and ready to respond in a crisis. A departmental review team is to report by next summer on the changes in the law that will be required to detain people under the new strategy, which will emphasise support rather than security. Funding will be found to open several hundred psychiatric beds in acute hospitals in buildings set aside for the purpose. The law on detaining patients who have untreatable psychiatric disorders is also being reviewed after a recent murder conviction exposed a loophole. In addition, a national service framework for mental health will set national standards for treatment. Mr Dobson acknowledged that care in the community had failed. Too many vulnerable patients were being left to cope on their own, creating a danger to themselves and the public.

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One in seven prisoners in western countries suffer from depression or psychosis and may not be receiving adequate treatment because prisons are not equipped to care for them, doctors said on Friday. "In terms of the burden of psychiatric illness it is huge because the number of prisoners in the world is over nine million," said Dr. Seena Fazel, a psychiatrist at the University of Oxford in England. He estimated there were more psychiatric patients in prisons than in hospitals in western countries, which posed a huge risk to prisoners and society. "A lot of them have mental illness and that constitutes a risk, not only for suicide for these prisoners, but also for public health because if they are not being treated properly and they go back into the community they are going to remain ill," he explained. Fazel and John Danesh, of the Institute of Public Health at the University of Cambridge, reviewed and pooled together data from 62 surveys of nearly 23,000 prisoners in European nations, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In a report in The Lancet medical journal they said prisoners were two to four times more likely to have an antisocial disorder than the general population. Four percent of men and women in western prisons had a psychotic illness, about 10-12 percent suffered from major depression and 65 percent of men and 42 percent of women had a personality disorder. "Psychiatric illness in prisoners is a serious problem and in many countries around the world mental health services for prisons need to be reviewed," Fazel said in an interview.

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This posting does not want to expose the public to dangerous individuals, but who will decide who is and who is not a danger?. The UK Government is bringing in a New Mental Health Act. The DSPD Order Bill will give psychiatrists new powers to detain people (difficult patients), with out a time limit. It's disturbing that emotionally disturbed and traumatised people don't get proper help, support and care. The mental health service doesn't have proper safety checks, to prevent abusive people working for them, patients complaints are placed in their own medical files. Of course in recent years the public has become more aware of human rights abuses, committed by "caring" organisations, organisations that are meant to protect vulnerable people from abuse and mistreatment. The proposals are as follows. A court can refer you for assessment for a Dangerous Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD) Order and a panel of doctors will assess whether you have a severe personality disorder and may thus be a danger to the public. You can be referred under the following conditions: * if you're being tried for a violent or sexual offence, the court, prosecution or defence can apply to refer you. * if you're on the sex offenders register, a chief police constable or an authorised officer of a local authority can apply to a crown court to refer you for assessment. * an authorised officer of a local authority (social worker etc) can apply to a county court to refer you if your behaviour has given "reasonable grounds" to suggest you may be a dangerous person with a severe personality disorder. Once referred you can be detained during assessment and if they decide you have a severe personality disorder and may be a danger to the public they can bang you up. There's no need to have committed any crime, and you then have to persuade them you're no longer a threat to the public before they'll let you out (on licence). Your detention is reviewed annually. A person can be detained under the DSPD Order even if they have NEVER committed a crime. The Bill, dose not rule out the possibility of somebody being placed in a prison. Nether social services nor the mental health services are policed by anybody but themselves. One of the claimed definitions of (European version) DSPD, is the "incapacity to experience guilt and to profit from experience, particularly punishment". Traditionally psychiatrists have been more interested in controlling people than healing them. The ultimate was to cut out a part of a persons brain. Now days however traumatised people who won't conform, are said to be "untreatable" and refused medical treatment. This has happened to myself on a number of occasions. I am very concerned about this new law as it might effect me personally and I wonder what kind of a regime I will be exposed to. Another definition of DSPD is, "marked proneness to blame others, or to offer plausible rationalisations, for the behaviour that has brought the patient into conflict with society". In recent years social service has been exposed again and again as an abusive organisation. The list of scandals is endless. The victims, many who are to disturbed and damaged to function properly, get no help from the mental health service and no answers or compensation from social services. Many of these scandals happened back in the 60's and 70's and yet an individual can not see his or her files, if they date back before 1986. The ombudsman will not investigate social services, if the event happened before 1976. Social services is an organisation that does not take responsibility for its actions. The investigations, into child abuse did not come from social services, it came from the police. I do not have convictions for crimes against the person and I am not a danger to the public. In the past I have been a danger to myself however, they (psychiatrists) did nothing to help me (even though they new this). I have tried on many occasions to get treatment and all I got was abuse. I simply don't trust these people. Are there safeguards against abusive therapeutic practices? Are there safe guards against a person being wrongly diagnosed and detained under the new mental health act? First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me. by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945