Wednesday, January 12, 2005

New Advisory Group on Mental Health Bill Appointed (UK)Medical News Today story - "UK Health Minister Rosie Winterton today announced the membership of a new advisory group responsible for advising the Government on how the new draft Mental Health Bill should be implemented. ... The Advisory Group will bring together a wide range of experience including people with backgrounds in health and social care professions, service use and caring, the police, and legal representation. Part of the Group's role will be to work with the Government developing a Code of Practice and Regulations which will support the implementation of the draft Mental Health Bill. The group will also act as a channel of communication and contact with the members' wider networks."  
  

Move to end race bias in mental health care (UK)   Story in The Guardian - "Ministers committed the government yesterday to a five-year plan to halt racial discrimination in NHS mental health services in England, which was exposed last year by an inquiry into the death of David Rocky' Bennett. Rosie Winterton, the health minister, said people from black and minority ethnic communities were less likely to come forward voluntarily for mental health treatment, more likely to stay longer as in-patients in psychiatric wards, and more likely to be prescribed medication or electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) instead of psychological treatment. Young black men were six times more likely than their white contemporaries to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act for compulsory treatment, although international studies showed they were not genetically more susceptible to serious mental illness..."