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Powys Carers Service Newsletter - Christmas 2004 -
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Carers Rights Day Roadshow
The Deputy
Health and Social Care Minister, John Griffiths officially opened
the Powys Carers Roadshow event to celebrate National Carers
Rights Day on Friday 3rd December 2004 held at the Metropole
Hotel, Llandrindod Wells. One in eight people will be a carer
in their lifetime, making carers one of the largest unpaid support
groups across Britain.
Yet many carers do not know what support services they themselves
are entitled to access in
order to make their caring role easier. That is why National
Carers Rights Day, led by Carers UK
is so vital. |
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We would like to thank the following information
groups for their support on the day: PAVO, Montgomeryshire and Brecon
& Radnor Crossroads, Montgomeryshire Carers, The British Red Cross,
CRUSE, Wiltshire Farm Foods, Health Promotion, Social Services, PMHA,
Community Transport, Disability Powys, Direct Payments and Citizens
Advice Bureau. Also thanks to Monica Thomas and The Bracken Trust
for therapies provided on the day.
Approximately 130 people attended on the day.
The aims of Carers Rights Day were to:
• Increase take up of benefits available to carers and their
families
• Ensure that carers access their rights under relevant legislation
• Raise awareness of the needs of carers
• Help individuals identify themselves as carers
Carers Wales has produced a Carers Rights Booklet, if you would like
a copy please contact the main office on 01597 823800
The Draft Mental Health Bill
The Draft Mental Health Bill reappeared again in
September 2004 following a period of amendments and a long history.
In 1998 an Expert Committee was established to review the existing
1983 Mental Health Act, this led to a Green Paper in November 1999
and then a White Paper In December 2000. There was widespread concern
about the White Paper from almost every quarter during the formal
consultation process, so the Government has now produced the new Draft
Mental Health Bill which is currently undergoing Pre Legislative Scrutiny
by a panel of experts, Chaired by Lord Carlile of Berriew.
Powys Agency for Mental Health is still concerned about a number of
issues in the New Draft, particularly from a Welsh perspective ie:
1. This is a Bill generally concerned with public safety, rather than
enshrining people’s right to treatment (with sufficient resources
to ensure that appropriate treatments are available). It appears to
conflict directly with the work currently ongoing in Wales around
the Mental Health National Service Framework.
2. This Bill plays into the stereotypes of mental illness as dangerous
when it is legislation designed to address the public safety issues
raised by a very small number of personality disordered offenders.
From our point of view it would make more sense to keep the criminal
justice issues separate from mental health issues, by having separate
legislation.
3. The definition of mental disorder is still too broad. The power
to use compulsion with such a broad definition will inevitably cause
anxiety amongst people with mental health problems and may deter them
from seeking treatment voluntarily at an early stage.
4. The threat of Community Treatment Orders is not the best way forward
for the therapeutic relationship although the new Draft Bill does
now restrict these orders to people who have previously been treated
in hospital.
5. The resource implications of this Bill could result in the diversion
of clinicians’ time from providing treatment interventions to
the bureaucracy of carrying out the legislation. There are already
serious shortages of psychiatrists and other professionals and problems
with staff recruitment and retention. These issues in themselves could
render the Bill “unworkable”. In rural Mid Wales the problem
will be compounded as scarce resources are already too thinly spread.
6. The Nearest Relative loses Rights which they held under the 1983
Act. One of the key benefits of the Nearest Relative provisions in
the 1983 Act was the ability it gave carers to resist the imposition
of compulsion in the first instance: this vital safeguard is largely
compromised in the proposed Bill. The Nearest Relative is to be replaced
by the Nominated Person and whilst we recognise the right of patients
to choose people to advocate for them this may undermine the rights
of carers to be engaged as key parties in their own right.
There are some positive aspects to the Bill in that
a) advocacy will become a statutory service
b) there will be restrictions on the use of ECT
c) a new Tribunal system will be established
However, we feel that “Its not the uses to which this proposed
legislation is intended to be put that is the problem – it’s
the misuses that it makes possible”
Mag Richards/Celia Cowie
Powys Agency for Mental Health
If you have a personal experience, or would like to comment on the
above please write to the Main Office using the contacts list.
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