The debate in the House of Lords earlier this week on the highly contested Mental Hill Bill lacked vital information from the CRE, but ended with a call for a legal challenge to be mounted, on account of the Bill’s failure to meet the legal requirements of Race Relations laws.
A controversial aspect of the Bill is the proposed introduction of Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) which would allow forced treatment within the community. Department of Health officials confirmed that the criteria for getting on or off a CTO would be similar to being sectioned and forecasted that three thousand people could end up on CTOs within the first five years.
But the rates of sectioning for the African Caribbean community are 44 per cent higher than white British people despite similar rates of mental health. Another crucial point of contestation is the demand by mental health campaigners for the right to independent advocacy by a culturally competent practitioner. Commenting on the debate, Matilda MacAttram, Director of Black Mental BMHUK told Black Britain: “The debate was welcomed, but from the viewpoint of BMHUK, we do not believe that the peers in the House of Lords were privy to all the information they needed in order to make a decision.”
She said that crucial information from the CRE was missing – that the Race Equality Impact Assessment for the Mental Health Bill is flawed and falls short of legal requirements. “If peers and MPs had been given access to this information from the outset, their decision would be very clear. “There is widespread acknowledgement that mental health services are institutionally racist,” Mac Attram said.
The BMHUK Director said that it is important to assert the extent of racism within the mental health system, because “there is another agenda to present ignorance about the reasons there are such high numbers of African Caribbean people within the system.” She added that it must not be forgotten that Sir John Bloefeld, a retired High Court judge concluded after the Rocky Bennett enquiry that the mental health system in the UK is “institutionally racist.”
“We cannot afford to keep quiet about this, especially when, as Lord Patel argued, there are mischievous elements at work trying to undermine this argument.” Lord Patel called for a legal challenge to the Mental Health Bill because it will discriminate, a fact argued by the CRE. “We have 30 years of work to show that mental health services are discriminatory and this Bill will make things a lot worse,” Mac Attram said.
But the rates of sectioning for the African Caribbean community are 44 per cent higher than white British people despite similar rates of mental health. Another crucial point of contestation is the demand by mental health campaigners for the right to independent advocacy by a culturally competent practitioner. Commenting on the debate, Matilda MacAttram, Director of Black Mental BMHUK told Black Britain: “The debate was welcomed, but from the viewpoint of BMHUK, we do not believe that the peers in the House of Lords were privy to all the information they needed in order to make a decision.”
She said that crucial information from the CRE was missing – that the Race Equality Impact Assessment for the Mental Health Bill is flawed and falls short of legal requirements. “If peers and MPs had been given access to this information from the outset, their decision would be very clear. “There is widespread acknowledgement that mental health services are institutionally racist,” Mac Attram said.
The BMHUK Director said that it is important to assert the extent of racism within the mental health system, because “there is another agenda to present ignorance about the reasons there are such high numbers of African Caribbean people within the system.” She added that it must not be forgotten that Sir John Bloefeld, a retired High Court judge concluded after the Rocky Bennett enquiry that the mental health system in the UK is “institutionally racist.”
“We cannot afford to keep quiet about this, especially when, as Lord Patel argued, there are mischievous elements at work trying to undermine this argument.” Lord Patel called for a legal challenge to the Mental Health Bill because it will discriminate, a fact argued by the CRE. “We have 30 years of work to show that mental health services are discriminatory and this Bill will make things a lot worse,” Mac Attram said.
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Assault on patients on wards/Police Corruption
11.07.2007 17:50
In November 1992 (November 5th) when my mother died of a massive heart attack after being the victim of a vicious street robbery some days before she died, I was in her home on the Nightingale Estate in Lower Clapton and did all I could to revive her, but failed and to be honest I've never really gotten over it or the loss.
I contacted my half siblings who came from Upper Clapton yet it took them some five hours to get to Hommerton Hospital where my mother died and the first words out of her mouth were how much money she left behind, I know this as the following day when I went to Hommerton Hospital I was arrested by Hackney Police 06/11/92 they intended to charge me with fraud/theft from a deceased person not knowqing that the information they were given was not only untrue, but also very vindictive, this information came from the following people my half sibling Kathleen Connolly, her then partner Steven Thomas who is a porter at Hommerton Hospital even now, Lucy Wade and one or two from the estate she resided on back then, namely Wrens Park House, the information they gave to the hospital was the following "He isn't anything to do with the family, the person who died wasn't his mother and is only trying to steal her belongings" This was later resolved when a detective from C.I.D. who knew both myself and my mother, had me released on the spot, yet not knowing my rights like I do so now, I did nothing about their false arrest, illegal detention, and so on, and when I had gotten all those named round to my mothers home, all they could come up with was how money should be left to Connolly's children, no interest in one's bereavement whatsoever, Steven Thomas had even brought members of his own family to back him up, when it had nothing whatsoever to do with him or his parents.
Some five years later when I was back in Hackney my half sibling asked me to stay at her home because she was having trouble with some neighbours, I should never have gone there, I know that now, but when one is a fool who's slept rough for such a long time, the thought of a decent hot meal with a roof over your head becomes very appealing, and so I took up the offer.
Some days later there was a fight inside my half siblings home and the police came from Stoke Newington Police Station, I was arrested for ABH and was taken away and it was only after I had been in the police station for some hours before they came and said allogations had been made that I had touched my half siblings children inappropriately, this of course was a downright fabrication, I have many convictions for theft and minor offences but none where children were involved ever, the police were only interested in making sure I was put away for a while, they didn't give a toss whether it was true or not.
On interview I denied everything and still do today (Why will the police not let me go public with their mistake DC fucking Curtis) you know who I am and no court in the land will prevent me from getting real justice against all those police officers involved) I was charged with several offences and was remanded in custody to Pentonville Prison, placed in with those who have done offences such as the above mentioned and one night when the person I was in the cell with talked about what he'd done, I began having thoughts, that he was doing what he claimed to my daughter and I attacked him and intended to smother him.
Prison Officers restrained me and I was given what is termed the liquid cosh and placed in a cell with rubber walls in a space suit so I couldn't harm myself or anyone else, I was kept like that until I was moved to the John Howard Centre in Febuary 1998 and didn't speak a word for nearly six months, to go through something like that with a rage inside that you can't or won't let out builds and builds until it explodes thus the term Explosive Personality Disorder, I was given a dual diagnoses of Disocial Personality Disorder/Explosive Personality Disorder.
There were agency staff employed at the John Howard Centre who took great delight in instigating fights between patients, then they'd hit the alarms when it got really out of hand and patients were beaten up and drugged up and on occasion it was my turn for some of their form of brutality and on more than one occasion I smashed the place up and on record for having the most riot police ever to be seen in the John Howard Centre to date (Today) who also made sure they gave me a good kicking.
For ten years I have been fighting an injustice done to me, I've constantly protested my innocence and will continue doing so until those responsible are brought to justice including those police officers who didn't proceed with the case once it had gotten to Snaresbrook Crown Court, and I was already a patient in the John Howard Centre, they wanted it to lie on file which isn't a conviction in any form so DC Curtis why have you been going round making mischief/ telling lies to my ex partner Brenda and her family something you now know isn't even the true and no apology either I might add (A mistake made by the Metropolitan Police in Hackney, the letter in my possession says) so how many other mistakes have you made DC CURTIS) Let's not dwindle on the past of deaths in custody are your very work place and how many sussessful cases have been brought against the Metropolitan Police where prisoners in custody have been beaten up by those supposed to uphold the law.
In or around April or May of 1999 I went before a Tribunal who stated they could find nothing more wrong with me and stated I'd be released back into the community, but would I mind staying around voluntarily so the team looking after me could find me suitable accomodation, to which I agreed, this agreement was for two weeks, I stood by the agreement, yet at the John Howard Centre, they did not, on the day I should have left I ended up being assaulted by staff, who had ripped up the later stating that I was to be released, forced to the floor, punched and kicked into submission and then some doctor comes in and says "I think your unwell so I'm putting you on a section 3" A community section which lasts some six months and during those last six months I smashed up, got back at those who attacked me so viciously (Staff) beaten up by riot police, took a hostage (STAFF) why because I'd had enough of them.
In October of 1999 I was again ready to go to a Tribunal and as it turns out it was the same people I'd been up in front of six months prior, staff found out about this and in ran Dr Phil Lucas who withdrew the section on the Friday before the Monday's Tribunal.
For ten years I've had to take medication (Willingly) I am prescribed Risperadone, Procycladine to stop the side effects of the Risperadone and now Fluoxitine as well, they my half siblings and member of the police in Stoke Newington destroyed my life, have taken great delight especially DC Curtis spreading malicious rumours which are not even fact, I wonder how you feel right now DC Curtis knowing that I intend to make you all pay for my ten years of misery, suffering and on medication for the foreseeable future, I want you and the rest of the Metropolitan Police to pay, you already have a gagging order on both myself and my legal team dealing with my family issue where again you stated I wasn't the father of the children, I'd have given all that I own to have seen your face when those DNA results arrived but let us not end it there you also told the same to Hackney Social Services and we all know how good they are having been linked to many scandals such as the one that went on for years at Trowbridge House in Hackney Wick You stated or representatives of the police stated that we were not to give out the information you claimed was no longer on file, so explain to the public here for the record how you were able to spread it about that I had assaulted female children, one under 16 and the other under 5 when you had your facts wrong in the first place, it turned out that they were boys who couldn't even get their stories correct on interview, they kept wanting to see their mum to tell her they loved her and wanted to marry her, "Why was that then?" (Because their mummy had put them up to it, if that isn't the truth why did the police not proceed with the case?) you gag both myself and my current family legal team from producing the information which would clear my name entirely, those same boys being the sons of my half sibling who was intent on causing as much trouble and damage as she could as she had a motive (GREED) the same as Steven Thomas, Elizabeth Trahane, and Lucy Wade and of course Kathleen Connolly and guess what none of them live in Hackney anymore, I wonder why that is?
Finally if anyone knows of a really good law firm which deals exclusively in suing the police, Social Services and Serving Police Officers please leave your message here and I'll look for your message in a few days.
I shall not be gagged from having the truth be told, either put up what you have or shut the fuck up Curtis.
Mac