The endorsement by Lord Toby Harris chair of the Government’s Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody, of the latest edition of The Solution Magazine, confirms the needs for this issue to be made as much a priority across government departments as it is across the community.
BMH UK’s second edition of the online The Solution Magazine is making as well as marking history by for the first time giving voice to the experience of the children who have been impacted by the issue of deaths in custody. In an exclusive interview children living with the legacy of such tragedies, shed light on the generational impact of deaths in custody.
The commemorative front cover of this October/November issue charts the tragic loss of lives, which is part of the hidden history that has sadly shaped the experience of black mental health in the UK over the past thirty years.
Levi Roots continues his support of BMH UK work of mainstreaming the issue of mental health in the community by sharing yet more healthy fabulicous recipes from his new book ‘Spice It Up.
In his column Why Mental Health Matters, Steve Pope, editor of the UK’s only black newspaper, The Voice, speaks out on the importance of remembering the community’s history in the particularly in the challenging area of mental health.
The UK’s leading black church leaders Archdeacon Daniel Kajumba, Bishop Llewellyn Grayham and Pastor Desmond Hall unite in their call for a radical overhaul in the way these cases are treated. Matilda MacAttram editor in chief of BMH UK’s The Solution Magazine and one of the Black Women in Europe: 2010 Power List, said:
‘of all aspects of black British history, the story of those from the UK’s African Caribbean communities who have used and died within mental health services is undoubtedly the most challenging. We mark black history month by taking a look at the uncharted history of black mental health, which as this edition’s cover shows, has sadly been shaped by the issue of deaths in custody.
Information is power and those who fail to learn from the mistakes of past are likely to repeat them. We hope that this edition goes some way to shed light on the past and give insight into how to ensure a better future for those in need of mental health care.’
For interviews call BMH UK News desk on: M: 07947 189 682
Please click here to read The Solution online or visit www.blackmentalheatlh.org.uk.
Notes to the editor
– BMH UK’s The Solution Magazine is funded by the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) Charitable Funds
– Black Mental Health UK is a human rights campaigns group established to address the over representation of African Caribbean’s within secure psychiatric care and raise awareness to address the stigma associated with mental health.
– African Caribbean’s are 50% more likely to enter the system via the criminal justice system or the police. 44% more likely to be sectioned, 29% more likely to be forcibly restrained, 50% more likely to be placed in seclusion and make up 30% of in patients on medium secure psychiatric wards despite having similar rates of mental illness as British white people.
– Detention rates for people from the UK’s African Caribbean community has doubled over the past five years during the period of 2005 – 2010. – Almost half the deaths of people in police custody are mental health service users.[1]