The most sinister aspect of the bill is that people could be detained for life in a prison. If the bill goes through, this will happen because there won't be enough treatment facilities. What we are talking about is internment of people who "might" be dangerous. Prison is a dangerous environment; in order to survive you have to be prepared to defend yourself, the behaviour of the patient (prisoner) will be monitored very closely. In case you think I am being alarmist, bellow is a section of the bill.

In Detention under a DSPD Order. 4. -

(1) A person made subject to a DSPD Order shall be detained in facilities which shall provide-
(a) a reasonable level of security for the public from the person detained; and
(b) services for the management and treatment of the person's disorder (though for the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that it is not a condition for the imposition of a DSPD Order that such treatment is likely to alleviate or prevent a deterioration in the person's condition).


It is extremely absurd, but the emotional and psychological welfare of “the patient” is simply ignored, the whole emphasis is on “behavioural therapy” and handing out drugs. Psychiatrists are never going to be able to help people, ore society, if they continue to focus on people’s negative (ether real or imaginary) personality traits. I am not suggesting here that people should be excused all kinds of wrongdoing, simply because they had a bad childhood, I am trying to suggest a much more holistic approach. I was diagnosed with an “Anti-social Personality Disorder” because:

A/ As an adult I have been emotionally, psychologically and socially dysfunctional.

B/ I have mostly been celibate and have not had long term relationships (though I have friends).

C/ I did not “respond to therapy” (being shouted at and interrogated).

D/ I was a juvenile delinquent (I’m now in my 40’s).

To emphasis how absurd all this is, I will reproduce the following entry which is written about me in a psychiatric report.

“ He admits, that he sometimes drinks four pints of beer a day and he smokes cannabis.”

Because I fit into the narrow description of the diagnostic and statistical manuals (psychiatric bible), my emotional and psychological suffering is ignored and I could be locked up in a dangerous environment for life. The more my emotional state improves, the more I realise just how much I (and others) I have suffered. The fact that for many years, I was systematically abused during childhood is well documented and excepted as a fact. However, I have never received the appropriate support and counselling to deal with this. Quit frankly, it is amazing that I have survived.

Psychiatrists and psychologists earn a good living; you won’t find them waiting out side a night shelter, looking for a bed. In order to be a psychiatrist, you need to study for about seven years, that costs money. On the other hand; many of the people they reject as “untreatable,” have to put up with the most desperate social circumstances. What are in fact survival strategies, are viewed by the mental health service as negative personality traits. Life sometimes requires that we (everybody) don’t always tell the truth, this is not a devious wish to manipulate and distort the facts (deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure), it is because it is often necessary to protect oneself and others from harm. The more your survival is threatened, the more you might need to do this. For a person living on the street, telling the truth may at times be very dangerous indeed. Many disturbed people, who live on the streets (care in the community) are very angry at society because it does not help them. This is not “blaming others for his problems” this anger is justifiable, many of these people have suffered horrific abuse and are not able to cope with life. They are psychologically and emotionally crippled and are on the streets because they get nether assistance nor treatment. However psychiatry views this as “consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behaviour or honour financial obligations.” In short; the social predicament that traumatised people often find themselves in, leads to a type of behaviour that is judged by psychiatry, to be an intricate part of the persons personality and not as a means of survival.

I have been coming into contact with mental health personal for 32 years. Besides a few exceptional people (some of whom I keep in contact with) I can honestly say, that most of them are stupid. It is paradoxical in the extreme, that their grasp of psychology is extremely primitive and their understanding of social issues is virtually nil. They only understand what is written in a book and nothing more. One last word about abuse; psychiatry has been aware of the issue for years, it has done nothing to make society aware of the enormity and prevalence of the issue, it does nothing for the victims despite writing huge volumes of literature about it and it is in itself abusive and repressive. It has more in common with a police state or the Spanish Inquisition, than the therapeutic service it is meant to be.



Questions Being Over Looked


1. Who polices the mental health service and are they accountable to the client and the public?

2. What safe guards are their to ensure that people are not wrongly diagnosed and detained under the new mental health act

3. Are there safeguards against abusive therapeutic practices?

4. If people are detained merely because they are "considered to be dangerous" will they be treated as patients or prisoners?

5. If they are to be treated as patients then why are places being reserved for them in Whitmore Jail?

6. If prisons in the UK are overcrowded, then how can staff find time to take care of their needs?

7. Will they have a cell to themselves if they chose it?

8. Will they be kept away from people in prison, who are being punished for a crime?

9. Will they have the right to personal property and clothing etc?

10. Are there safe guards against abusive "therapeutic practises?"

11. Why does the DSPD Order Bill, not provide a provision to detain a person who has a "Severe Personality Disorder" if they are a danger to themselves?