Jean Charles de Menezes inquest: ‘I felt they were a bit out of control, that’s what it felt like’

Further evidence was given today by commuters present on the tube train where Jean Charles de Menezes was shot. And the evidence given further contradicts what the cops said. There has to be criminal charges brought against the cops on the ground and also the top brass. Do they think hollow apologies are sufficient? That mistakes happen and that Jean Charles de Menezes was collateral damage?

Well, it seems the cops are well rehearsed in giving their evidence and their truth and version of events doesn’t seem to correspond with any of the commuters. Funny that…

What comes across from the various descriptions of the cops that day are the antics of hyped-up adrenaline junkers and trigger happy macho cops.

What will eventually come out of this inquest and its implications remain to be seen. Rick at Ten Percent gives his own impressions which I very much agree with.

Welcome to the psychiatric ASBO……

There is very little evidence to suggest that CTOs are associated with any positive outcomes and there is justification for further research in this area.

Well the psychiatric ASBO otherwise known as Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) has been ushered in today along with other changes to the Mental Health Act. And Royal College of Psychiatrists (and it seems the RCP have done a volte-face as they were originally very nervous towards the introduction of CTOs) and mental health Tsar, Louis Appleby are welcoming the changes.

Will these changes ensure better care for a minority of patients who, because of illness, stop taking their medication and are therefore vulnerable and at risk…?

What are the safeguards? And what about rights and principles. Who will make the decisions? Will someone on a CTO be allowed to appeal? How will the CTOs be monitored? Who will do the monitoring? Where is the accountability and transparency? It is one continuous attack on civil liberties, self-determination and autonomy.

The implications are that psychiatrists will be over-zealous in applying a CTO under the belief that it will be better to be safe than sorry and err on the side of caution. It is sugar coating CTOs to make them more palatable to swallow and they are nothing more than psychiatric ASBOs.

The government claim that around 1,450 will be placed on CTOs yet according to research by the King’s Fund it is estimated that there will be a gradual year on increase of numbers. They believe it is more likely that between 7,000-13,000 service users could be placed on CTOs over the next 10-15 years.
At the moment young Black men are 38% more likely than the average to be sectioned under the current Mental Health Act and with the lack of safeguards this disproportionate number of Black people being forced onto CTOs will remain.

The psychiatric system reflects the sexism, racism and homophobia that exists in this society and without any kind of anti-discrimination this will continue (though there was an amendment regarding this but New Labour ditched it). In March 2007, research commissioned by the Dept of Health stated:

This review has found very little evidence of positive effects of CTOs in the areas where they might have been anticipated. None of the nine experimental studies found evidence suggesting that CTOs reduce either hospital readmission or length of stay, or that they improve compliance. (Rachel Churchill – International Experiences of Community Treatment Orders).

Even New Labour’s mental health Tsar, Louis Appleby, admitted that the review had not reliably demonstrated the effectiveness of CTOs… Yes, the same Louis Appleby in today’s Guardian letters page…

CTOs are a way, New Labour claims, of reducing psychiatric admissions yet studies have shown in Australia, that CTO placement, aboriginal ethnicity, younger age, personality disorder and previous health service use were all associated with increased admission rates. The authors conclusion stated that we should question the rationale for CTOs and advocate more effective treatments. (British Journal of Psychiatry, 2004).

The Institute Of Psychiatry’s International experiences of using CTOs (March 2007) noted as well that ethnicity data from Israel, USA, New Zealand and Australia, indicate that relative to the proportion of the general population comprised by their ethnic group, most ethnic groups might be over-represented amongst CTO recipients.

The Mental Health Act can be reduced to the 3 C’s of New Labour (compulsion, coercion, containment). It is a retrograde act and will terrify mental health service users. It will destroy trust between service user and professional. Instead of support service users will feel policed. If a person can live in the community then they should be trusted in whether they take their medication. It is about choice. And surely the service user is the best person to know whether medication works or doesn’t work? And if the service user is experiencing dire side-effects are they expected to keep taking it?

Mental health service users already, for good reason, feel stigmatised and victimised and this Act will only increase that fear. One of the biggest criticisms from mental health service users (and from my own personal experience I echo it) is not being listened to and your needs, demands, concerns regularly ignored by professionals this will indeed create more powerlessness and lack of control over your surroundings. This will add to the distress and will in no way increase better mental health.

The Act with its changes, along with agenda of New Labour, attacks civil liberties and will instil fear, stigma, mistrust and create a tightly controlled passive society…..

The human cost of benefits underpayments

Walking home from the supermarket I noticed one of those awful posters that point the finger of suspicion at so-called benefit fraudsters. Timely then that figures released by the DWP show that more than £1bn of total benefit expenditure was underpaid last year. Between April 2007 and March 2008, £2.6bn, or 2%, of total benefit expenditure was overpaid during the year due to fraud and error.

However over the same period – and even discounting those claimants who are entitled to benefit but who do not apply and those whose applications are incorrectly refused – those who made a claim for benefit and were made an award were underpaid £1.1 billion.

So that figure doesn’t include people who didn’t apply for a benefit but were entitled to and those incorrectly refused. I assume then the figure would be much higher if they were included in the figure. And I bet many people are put off from applying for benefits due to the bureaucracy, the form filling is a total minefield, fear that they may be refused, conditionality, the various obstacles and hoops (voice risk analysis, for example) people have to jump through to prove their entitlement to a meagre benefit.

The figure includes underpayments of income support and JSA of £130m; £120m of pension credit; £190m of housing benefit; £250m of disability living allowance; £150m of retirement pension; and £50m of incapacity benefit. In March ’08, the Local Government Association estimated that claimants are missing out on council tax benefit worth £1.8bn ‘cos the rules are complex and poorly advertised.

Even with overpayments due to error and fraud at £2.6bn, lets put that into some perspective by looking at how much is lost due to tax avoidance and evasion. It is estimated that £105bn is lost through both tax avoidance and tax evasion.

What is lost through benefit fraud is a drop in financial ocean compared to tax evasion and tax avoidance. And as so much revenue is lost through tax avoidance and evasion where are the posters pointing at these fraudsters? We know where Brown’s loyalities and priorities lie with the banking bail-out and scapegoating the poor regarding benefit fraud is so much easier than targeting the rich and powerful!

The spotlight falls on the poor in this society, the claimant who is trying to make ends meet by taking on some work whilst not disclosing it to the state and the rich and powerful who have the luxury of not having to worry about money but get away with tax avoidance and evasion cos they can.