| Psychiatric ASBOs set to wreak havoc in the black community |
| Monday, May 21, 2007 |
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Matilda MacAttram |
CTO's are likely to be targeted at black men
 It is important to note that the kinds of people on CTOs will be those who have a long history of coming in and out of the services and this group is largely young black men.
Chinyere Inyama, Mental Health Lawyer
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Race equality campaigners have slammed Government plans to forcibly medicate patients who have used psychiatric services while living in the community under planned changes to mental health law.
The proposed CTOs (Community Treatment Orders) have been condemned by community leaders who have warned that these plans will effectively make countless black people prisoners within their own homes. Slammed as ‘psychiatric asbos’ by human rights group, campaigners are demanding for these plans to be dropped from the hugely unpopular 2006 Mental Health Bill in order to stop the havoc they will wreak havoc in the black community.
CTOs are among the seven proposals introduced by the Department of Health in the troubled 2006 Mental Health Bill, which is due to be debated in the House of Lords this month. CTOs are the biggest change to the law since discussions started around this issue. It is important to note that the kinds of people on CTOs will be those who have a long history of coming in and out of the services and this group is largely young black men.
Those who disagree with the opinions of clinical teams and those who would like to do thing differently: “ We know that it will be black people who largely fall into this category,” Chinyere Inyama, mental health lawyer said. They Government say CTOs will ensure potentially dangerous patients living in the community will receive the treatment they need to protect themselves and the public.
However the Government’s own research shows that CTOs do not work and calls are mounting from race equality groups to have Community Treatment Orders ditched from the hugely unpopular 2006 Mental Health Bill as this amendment was debated by the House of Common’s Mental Health Committee last week. An independent study commissioned by the Government concluded that CTO do not positively assist patient’s recovery or reduction in risk to the public.
“Such a clause has no place within mental health legislation, this has come straight out of the Home Office and is being driven by an agenda of fear,” Tim Lawton, shadow health minister told Black Britain. His office has actively opposed of the many of the pernicious proposals under the Bill has confirmed there are committed to fighting the Bill.
“All the research shows that CTO swill be more likely to be used on ethnic minorities and this Bill will further undermine relationships between different ethnic groups,” Professor Kwame McKenzie told Black Britain. Detention rates of black people under the 1983 Mental Health Act are 44% higher British white people despite having similar rates of mental ill health.
Once in the system the treatment is typified by compulsion and coercion.
Black people are more likely to be misdiagnosed, over medicated, forcibly restrained and placed in seclusion despite having similar rates of mental ill health as other ethnic groups.
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