Citizenship

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”

“They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”

Article 1: Universal Declaration of human rights

Fair and Just Laws

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread”

Anatole France (1884-1924)

Mental Health Act 2001

“No! No! said the Queen, sentence first- verdict afterwards”

Lewis Carroll: “Alice’s adventures in wonderland (1865)”

“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer”

Sir William Blackstone 1723-1780

Criminal Justice (Insanity) Act 2006

“Wrongdoing can only be avoided if those who are not wronged feel the same indignation at it as those who are”

Solon 638-559BC Athenian Poet, statesman and reformer

Section 13 amendment to be urgently addressed

It’s Only Medication

“The doctors were very brave about my illness”

Dorothy Parker

Risk Management?

Restraint and seclusion

“It is now recognised internationally that seclusion and restraint can be significantly reduced and in many cases eliminated. Our intention should be to eliminate it”

Queensland state policy document

STIGMA and Public Attitudes

Just 41% of thosesurveyed thoughtpeople with mentalhealth problemsshould have childrenif they wished. Only61% believed that peoplewith mental healthproblems had the right tofulfilment through sexualRelationships “Public Attitudes towards people with

disabilities” NDA 2007.

Social Exclusion

“People with a diagnosis of mental illness, as a group, are severely socially excluded in Irish Society”

(Quarterly National Household survey, CSO 2004)

Negative generalisationsStereotypesLanguageMedia messagesIngrained assumptions

Leadership

“No stranger to misery myself, I am learning to befriend the wretched”

Virgil (70-19 BC)

“An intellectual is a man who doesn’t know how to park a bike”

Spiro T. Agnew (1918-96)

Thank you for listening