A shining moment for the Commons?

I guess like so many I have heard about the debate in the commons, (full coverage found here http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=10885) and much as it is a land mark I’m still left dissatisfied. The MP’s did speak out and for this arena that is very new, but sadly despite how much courage it took I am left feeling that the public has been misled. As I listened I was not unmoved by the MP’s who spoke, however it was their feelings of fear about what they were about to say that was obvious to me.

It was the details were glossed over and in how Mr Kevan Jones spent so much time saying how long it had taken him to make the decision and the humour of Mr Charles Walkers just emphasized both of their needs to tell everyone that it was of little importance to their jobs. A sign that they both felt very much that people did believe that it was.

I guess having never had the privilege of denying my mental health diagnosis I have come to scorn those who have when they step up and speak. I find it difficult to be understanding when they say how they are now fine or words to that effect. Every job I have had came with a health form with the question do you now or have you ever had a mental health condition and it has left me feeling the brunt of prejudice I would have chosen to avoid had I not felt it impossible lie about it. To my mind it is far too overdue and my sympathies are limited, I wish they weren’t as people have good reason to fear coming out. If you look at the attitudes to mental health survey (http://www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/attitudestomi11) you can see that there’s been a definite down turn in people thinking that sufferers who’ve had a mental health issue should be excluded from taking public office.

Anyone with a history of mental problems should be excluded from taking public office in

Year	total agree	total disagree
1994	29%	47%
2011	21%	55%

 the rest either didn’t agree or disagree, or didn’t know.

Plus

People with mental illness should not be given any responsibility

Year	Total agree	Total disagree
1995	17%	59%
2011	13%	65%

However there is a very long way to go and sadly many other attitudes to mental health have gotten worse over the years. Not a good sign.

It did however highlight several things for me that I didn’t know for instance, I was unaware of the law over jury service, and only partially aware of not being able to be a school governor or MP.

In fact I’m not even sure now that I have a clearer picture but am very glad that I now almost certainly don’t have to think about it. I wonder now how many other people are not aware of the law and mental health and it seemed very fitting that the main push for getting rid of this was peoples views on prejudice and equality however it was a comment by the house that I recall that had nothing to do with either that I feel deserves an airing here.

It was said that this law sent a clear message to people that once you become mentally ill to this extent that there is no getting better and that this had to stop. This trend in believing that people don’t recover is also echoed in the attitudes to mental health survey where

People with severe mental health problems can fully recover

Year	Total agree	Total disagree
2009	60%	12%
2011	58%	13%

As above the remainder either neither disagreed or agreed ,or didn’t know.

Not a great change nor significant from a statistical point of view but still it worries me.

It’s an interesting take on the situation and not one I had considered. It has to be said that the lack of a definable recovery is important and I feel goes a long way to understand why people do not own up to mental health issues. If you are never going to be in recovery then you will be tarred with the stigma for the rest of your life and better not to have to face that prejudice unless you absolutely have no choice. And who can blame them, I certainly don’t, however I feel very much that it is a barrier to people seeking help and to their recovery. You may sit on the fence here and say what does it matter but it does. Even alcoholics have a recovering status that really isn’t available or thought about for mental health issues.

I will always be bipolar and much as I hate that status however it is only part of who I am. For many years I was stable and working and I wished that there was a way to explain to people without having to go through everything, every time and dredge up huge amounts of my past to give them reassurance that I was going to cope. The fact is that I wish that if I said I haven’t had a depressive or manic phase in x number of years that it would infer something to others of my stability and of my ability to not become unwell, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean a damn thing they just look at me and more often than not proceed to give me advice about talking about it, and being able to come to them or occupational health. The fact is that many people live and work and have had no problems and to have to go through this every time I feel insulting.

I understand their worrys, I share them however I think it unreasonable to assume that every person with a severe mental health issue is unstable or a liability and some degree of trust in their judgment after so many years of stability would be a welcome change. Surely there comes a point where as a sufferer you can be said to be recovering, if not recovered, and that as such the conversations about your mental health issues should be left to be instigated by you; that employers will trust your judgment to take the necessary steps to ensure that you stay healthy and fit for work. That they will trust that you will make the time to talk to the people you need to about your problems and/or specific needs without the prompting from them, and that’s not to say that they should not be vigilant but that if they truly have this open understanding then they need to show sufferers some trust.

Sadly I feel we are a long way from having an open and safe environment to talk about mental health and that this is why they feel the need to insist, to make sure that we as sufferers have thought about this stuff. I do feel that it actually sends a very different message to those who have to do the explaining and I find myself feeling very much the same about the House of Commons debate. It was very far from being the safe environment that Mr Charles Walker claimed.

In fact I often felt that the responses that came from the house when the speakers talked of the problems concerning mental health and its related issues were very defensive. They were very quick to say what they had been doing to make the situation better. Maybe this is just a product of the Commons and my not having watched too many debates but it left me feeling that they weren’t serious about doing something to improve the appalling state of things relating to mental health.