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Re: Pandemic influenza and the Mental Health Act 1983: consultation on proposed changes to the Mental Health Act 1983 and its associated secondary legislation

I am writing to bring your attention to the concerns that I have over the proposals set out in a DH (Department of Health) consultation to remove safeguards around the detention and forced medication of people sectioned under the 1983 Mental Health Act in the event of a second flu pandemic.

I support Black Mental Health UK who campaign on issues of social justice and are calling for the legal duties within human rights and race relations law to be incorporated into these emergency changes.

I believe that Mental Health legislation even in the event of a flu pandemic needs to meet the needs of a multicultural 21^st century society and take into account the disproportionate impact  this law  currently has  on ethnic minorities and in particular people from African Caribbean communities.

Currently people from these communities are over represented in medium and high secure psychiatric settings despite having similar rates of mental illness than any other ethnic group.

Proposed changes in this consultation will reduce the number of doctors required to detain an individual against their will for assessment and forced treatment from two to one.  The DH have also proposed suspending the requirement for a second opinion appointed doctor (SOAD) to approve giving a patient medication without consent if they have been in hospital for three months or more.

A second opinion doctor can be critical in the treatment of people from African Caribbean communities as cultural issues in relation to behaviour, values and beliefs  often plays  a part in interpreting a person's behaviour. Without this social problems may be medicalised and  lead  to unnecessarily long stays in hospital, which has a disruptive and often damaging impact on both patients and their families.
Findings from the Count Me In Census 2008 shows that detention rates for black Briton's is now so high that this issue impacts on the lives of every black family living in the UK.  Because of this there is a consensus within the community that Mental Health Care will be a key issue for black communities in the comming 2010 election.

DH proposals have not taken into account the positive duty on the state within the Human Rights Act to protect individuals, including the young and other vulnerable people from serious breaches of their personal integrity or the legal duties  within race relations legislation. I believe that these proposals will increase unwitting discrimination against people African Caribbean communities and damage race relations.  I am also concerned that an equalities impact assessment has not been conducted on these proposed changes.

I therefore ask you as my MP to call on government to:

-          Aks a question in the House as to why there has been absolutely no publicity of these changes among key stakeholders within African Caribbean communities who will be disproportionately impacted by such changes.

-          Propose that retired doctors be recruited to make up for any shortfalls in SOADs

-          Propose other professionals also be considered in a supporting role in the absence of a SOADs

-          Call for an equality impact assessment on the proposed changes to the Mental Health Act

Yours sincerely

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