So the final curtain has fallen in the UK on the Mental Health Bill . There may be discussions ahead over the code of practice but the bill will soon be an act and nine years of controversy, debate and subterfuge will be over.
I’m not sure what it must be like to follow it for nine years but I’ve found the last two years pretty exhausting. At the same time there is a sense of sadness as a journalist when a long-running story finally comes to an end. I think it’s a credit to all sides that after all the wrangling they managed to come up with a bill that while it is not perfect most people do not seem too unhappy about. There were many times when that did not seem possible and the bill has changed a lot since the days it was seen as a mechanism for locking up anyone who the authorities felt might one day be dangerous.
And the Mental Health Alliance, which was set up to improve the bill and probably won’t continue, has brought the mental health field together in an unprecendented manner. Alliance veteran and Rethink director of public affairs Paul Corry says the nine years of the bill and the alliance have seen the sector grow up and gain strength. On now to bigger and better things, let’s hope.
Elsewhere, high levels of crime are seriously affecting the mental health of citizens in South Africa, according to a psychologist.
"Normal-thinking people now perceive their reality as being dangerous and their responses are more aggressive," says Bryan Hellmann.
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