In the US, campaigners are pushing for a “fresh air bill” to give people in psychiatric hospitals daily access to the outdoors. Even though this a right “long enjoyed by prison inmates” many US private medical centres are against it because they won’t be able to “guarantee safety”. Unbelievable really. What kind of care can people be receiving if they can’t even go outside in safety?
Meanwhile, back in the UK attitudes to people with mental health problems have worsened markedly since 1994. Fewer people consider themselves broadly sympathetic or would be happy to live next to someone with a mental illness and more consider them dangerous. I can’t help feeling all the talk about having to lock up dangerous patients that has surrounded the mental health bill over the past nine years cannot have helped. The mainstream media’s response to a report out earlier in the year which revealed that the rate of homicides committed by people with mental health problems had remained static was also pretty poor. Again, it was not helped by the government giving it loads of prominence and spin to back up the case for its mental health bill.
Maybe now the bill is behind us we can move away from the whole dangerousness debate for a while.
Personally, I think it’s high time that the various mental health charities in England built on their joint working over the bill and launched a concerted anti-discrimination campaign. The Department of Health should throw some more money at it too. The £1m a year it currently spends doesn’t even make a dent.
Greetings,
I am responding to a post that appeared in the July 9, 2007 issue of this blog, entitled "a right to fresh air and not to stigma."
I am the founder of the "fresh air bill" movement here in Massachusetts and I appreciate seeing that the word has spread! this is the first outside-of-U.S. mention I've seen, and it's wonderful to see it!
The effort is still being worked on. After failing to pass in the state legislature twice, we're going for a third try, along with legislation to put enforcement in a law that spells out "five fundamental rights" for psych inpatients. The law has been in place for 10 years, but there's no means to enforce it, complaints cannot be made with a neutral party, so the law is ignored at almost every hospital I know of.
Being the medical "hub" of the U.S., and perhaps the world, we enjoy the best care available for physical health...but the flipside is that the health care industry is so powerful that they have tremendous clout and lobbying power!
Anyway, if you hear anything about current developments in fresh air advocacy in the UK or elsewhere, please don't hesitate to be in touch...my email is ambient871@hotmail.com.
Onward,
Jonathan Dosick
Founder and Coordinator
CFAR (Coalition for Fresh Air Rights)
Waltham, MA USA
Hi Jonathan, thanks for your message and glad to hear you are still campaigning. If I see any more information on the fresh air movement, I'll be sure to mention it!