MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY

It is the case that too often where we have compromised mental health we also have compromised human rights. The politicians and our local councils can be very ignorant of the needs of those with mental health needs. An example of this is a client who the local council made reference to as "Mentally impaired and socially dysfunctional" in their description of him in the council tax exemption letter he was given. Our client; understandibly, gave them an angry letter where he was visited by the police and threatened with arrest in his own home when he had not broken the law and was guilty of nothing more than just practicing his right to freedom of speech. Even though this man was exempt from paying council tax the council continued to bully this man with council tax bills and threats of applications for court orders if he didn't pay his bills by a certain date. His MSP did not respond and he refused to pay where he heard nothing after the deadline. Some people would have been intimidated into paying the council tax bill even though they would be exempt. The local councils can be bullies.

If you are living with a mental health complaint where you have experienced a social injustice that your local council, health or medical professional, social worker, educator, any other statutory worker, employer, private company etc was at the centre of or played a part in then we want to hear about your experience as we are collecting data over the next two years that we plan on taking to the Scottish Government to evidence that there is a mental health discrimination culture in Scotland and that there needs to be a change in the attitudes of many statutory workers, more accountability in the statutory sector towards the quality of services received by those with mental health complaints and physical disability and there also needs to be an overhaul in the way statutory workers are trained to do their jobs . The Scottish Government also need to be made aware of the need to; and pressured into, making mental health and disability a much greater priority area in their future manifesto commitments. This data also needs to be taken to Scottish MP's as there needs to be a change to human right legislation which is an area of power reserved to Westminster. It's about time our politicians listened and that all statutory as well as private sector workers providing services to those with mental health complaints and/or disability were held more accountable and even punishable by law for the way they treat people.

If your experience has been an issue related to physical disability then we would also like to hear about your experience. The Scottish Government must not forget their obligations to people with mental health conditions and/or physical disabilities and this area must be made a much bigger priority area by all political parties. 

Phone: 0141 482 9406     Mob: 07415 652525                               

e-mail: timbone66@gmail.com