….wishing the Government had been able to get these laws passed or won these votes in the House of Lords.
I know, I know. It’s wrong to want stronger powers to section people just because the guy in the flat below me spent the whole night shouting and screaming out of his window at the top of his voice because he didn’t take his medication. Maybe I’ll be a bit more considered about once I’ve had some sleep.
Still, in my current sleep deprived state, I wish that the Government’s provisions for a more easily applied compulsory treatment for mental health issues, even where it concerns drug or alcohol use, were in force today.
Still, at least I get to meet members of their Lordship’s house in my day job.
So I might just mention it to them.
A difficult one in that the kind of legislation that was being considered may have made it harder to get people sectioned in the first place, as they would pick up on the likely outcomes and go to ground rather than have to submit to treatment which many feel takes away their liberities. I don’t know if you live in a flat block managed by a RSL, but if you do, a quiet word with one of their tenancy officers might not come amiss…….
Not my flat, my girlfriends, which is managed by an RSL (who are excellent btw – Cowley estate, lambeth, should anyone be thinking of moving to the area!).
She went to see them this morning and they are v sympathetic and going round to him and also speaking to SocServ.
The problem here is that it’s a pattern of behaviour – apparently he pretty reg’ly refuses to take medication with predicatable results. Right now, I think short term emergency compulsory care seems reasonable in response when someone is losing it like that. Even though there’s little evidence he’s a danger to anything except sleep, quiet and himself.
I guess it’s easier to be more worried about the “rights” of patients than those of the people their behaviour impacts if you live on a huge family estate near High Wycombe rather than in a flat.
Frederick Richard Penn Curzon will be 59 next week…
Hopi; whole big issue that you have touched on here about the powers of the House of Lords in general. They have had a far greater impact on our daily lives than anyone cares to admit. The MPs wont say it as they like to categorise them as powerless nobodies, and the Lords won’t draw attention to it as it just gets people muttering about reform.