Each week we publish blog posts on a whole range of topics, relating in some way to mental health — written by Mind staff, service users and health and policy professionals. Some blog posts may not reflect official Mind policy.
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This is a guest blog by Sian Greenhead, a researcher with Victim Support.
Imagine the scene – you are travelling home on the bus with a friend after a night at the cinema, engrossed in an animated debate about the film. Your friend nearly misses her stop as a result and waves you a frantic goodbye as she rushes off the bus.
There’s much talk at the moment of the future of mental health services. Is NHS funding really protected? What does the move to GP commissioning mean for mental health? Yet there’s a need to focus attention on the current state of services too, which is what Mind is doing through our new Care in crisis campaign.
9 CommentsWednesday’s Spending Review announcement was a blow for Mind’s Another assault campaign to achieve equal access to justice for victims and witnesses with experience of mental distress. Deep cuts to the policing budget mean fewer frontline officers, little or no money for training, and a drive to “protect key priorities” – which, as history shows, is hardly likely to include so-called “diversity” issues like mental health.
7 CommentsAn appalling case reported on Friday, where police officers in Essex failed to investigate sexual assaults because the victim was not believed due to her history of mental distress, highlights just how far we still have to go before victims and witnesses with mental health problems have equal access to justice.
6 CommentsAs the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) continues its inquiry into disability-related harrassment this summer, David Stocks from RADAR shares his personal experience of the devastating consequences hate crime can have on mental health.
Find out what you can do.
31 CommentsDo you have a similar story? Please tell us about it in the comments section below.
As Mind’s lead on our Another assault campaign, I continue to be outraged when I hear how victims and witnesses of crime are denied access to justice because of their mental health problems.
One particularly shocking story is that of FB*, an assault victim who was completely failed by the criminal justice system due to stigma surrounding his diagnosis of schizophrenia. This is his story – and Mind is sure there are sadly many more like it…
On Boxing Day 2005, FB was seriously assaulted and had part of his ear bitten off. FB reported the crime to the police and later identified his assailant at an identity parade. His assailant was arrested and interviewed by the police, when he verified FB’s account of the time and place of the incident and the other people who were present, but denied biting off FB’s ear.
His assailant was charged with the serious offence, but FB never saw his case tried in a criminal court. Before the trial, defence solicitors got hold of FB’s medical records, to argue that FB’s psychiatric diagnosis of schizophrenia cast doubt on his reliability as a prosecution witness.
As a result of this evidence, prosecutors instructed FB’s doctor to provide a report on his condition and the likelihood it would affect his perception and recollection of events.
But the questions asked by prosecutors were of a general nature, with no attempt to explore FB’s individual experience of schizophrenia, whether FB was capable of providing reliable evidence, or whether there was any medical reason to think that FB’s identification of his assailant might suggest he was hallucinating or demonstrating paranoid beliefs. No attempt was made to discuss the report further with the psychiatrist, although he was due to attend the trial, or with FB and his solicitors.
On the day of the trial, the prosecution dropped the case on the basis of the doctor’s report, deciding that FB was an unreliable witness so the prosecution could offer no evidence to support the charges against the assailant. FB was denied justice because of his mental health condition.
On appeal, the Crown Prosecution Service was eventually found by the High Court to be in breach of the Human Rights Act, for failing to uphold the state’s duty to protect people from inhuman or degrading treatment – such as assault – by not pursuing the case.
The High Court judge in the appeal case criticised the prosecutors involved for basing decisions on an unfounded stereotyping of FB as someone who was not to be regarded as credible on any matter because of his history of mental health problems.
Mind is concerned that stories like these are all too common. We have been awarded funding from the Law Society to develop a mental health toolkit for prosecutors, to tackle stigma and help them to make better decisions about cases involving victims or witnesses with mental distress.
As part of our research we need more evidence about people’s experiences of taking a criminal case to court – if you have a similar story to FB’s, please post it below – we may contact you afterwards to ask for more information.
Amy Whitelock, Policy and Campaigns Officer
*Name has been changed.
3 CommentsToday, the influential Justice committee has published its report on the CPS. It highlighted current failings of the justice system in providing support for people with mental health problems as victims of crime.
I gave evidence to the Justice Committee in February and debated the issue this morning with Keir Starmer, Director Of Public Prosecutions on the Today programme. He accepted that the CPS had failed people with mental health problems in the past but that the CPS were now addressing this.
For me, access to justice is a basic human right in our society. We all expect that if we are the victim of a crime, we will be taken seriously by the criminal justice system and that we will be supported as a witness. It is extraordinary that so many people find themselves excluded from that system simply because they have had a history of a mental health problem.
The testimonies Mind continues to hear are shocking. A victim of serious physical assault saw his case dropped because he had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, despite identifying the assailants and having physical evidence of the extent of the crime. An out of control vehicle mounted the kerb and ran into a woman walking along the pavement, but the case of dangerous driving was dropped because the pedestrian had attempted suicide in the past, and it was suggested she may have put herself in the way of danger intentionally. A mother and her teenage son have endured years of abuse at the hands of their neighbours after disclosing family history of mental illness, and continue to live in fear because the police will not take the case seriously.
But the tide is now turning. The Justice Committee and the DPP himself accept that it can't go on like this. The CPS policy, newly released this week with input from Mind, is welcome. But now we need to see a culture change from top to bottom. A change in attitudes, towards a system that treats someone with a mental health problem as an equal citizen with equal access to justice.
Our work in tackling stigma and discrimination at all levels, through Time to Change and many other activities within Mind, is crucial. But we won't make any difference unless others act. Here's a great opportunity for the DPP and the CPS to lead the way and help transform the experience of people with mental health problems.
Paul Farmer, Chief Executive, Mind
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