Akmal Shaikh

Today, a mentally ill man by the name of Akmal Shaikh was executed in China for drug smuggling. He never had much chance of a reprieve; China take a particularly dim view of drug smuggling and its history re the Opium Wars mean that they take an even dimmer view of British drug smugglers. This is the pop song that Akmal Shaikh had written for world peace. If anything illustrates his state of mind, this does.

But before we start critisising China, I think we should take a look at our own system. How do the mentally ill fare in it? Very badly, is the answer. This report illustrates just how many people who are mentally ill, end up in jail, because there is nowhere else for them to go.

At least there is reporting on it now. When Care in the Community was introduced and people who were in institutions were suddenly put in houses, there were many objections that they were not coping. Finally, a report was commissioned to check how they were doing and where they had ended up. The report left out prisons. At one meeting I was at, a doctor from one of the Glasgow institutions stood up and said that half of the people who had been at the institution he had worked at, were now in jail. It was totally unsuitable both for the patients and the warders, who were trying to do a job that they were not trained for.

If you want to do a good deed today, you could do worse than leave a message of sympathy for Akmal Shaikh. And mention Gary McKinnon while you're at it. Instead of cursing the darkness, it's time to light a candle of hope for the mentally ill.

After a Long Slumber, Rip Van Winkle Wakes Up

The BMA has finally discovered that there are Bad Things happening to the NHS and that Market Forces have rather a lot to do with it. As a result they have decided to alert their members with this Christmas card and have set up a website to encourage us all to take action to preserve the NHS as a Public Service.

Ah well, they got there in the end.Bless..

Why Kerrie Wooltorton was not Sectioned Under the Mental Health Act

Have just been on 'Fighting Monsters', one of my favourite social work blogs. Cb, the intrepid author, gives a very good explanation of how a clinician is meant to decide whether a patient should be treated under the Mental Health Act or the Mental Capacity Act. Basically, if you are treating the patient for a physical condition, then you treat under the MCA. If you are treating for their mental condition, then you treat under the MHA. Kerrie Wooltorton came under the MCA, because the condition that they were treating her for was physical (an overdose) although the condition that had caused it was a mental one. You can read cb's analysis here..

They Saw It Coming..

Apologies again for disappearing and not completing my posts on the Mental Capacity Act. One of my relatives has been in hospital for the past three weeks and I have been somewhat caught up. Anyway, I returned to the MCA and came across this. In the light of the Kerrie Wooltorton case, it has a particularly haunting quality to it..