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A victim of crime and a negligent health service
• I HAVE been a mental health service user for many years and during this long and often fraught period have had the unfortunate experience of being a victim of crime on many occasions, ranging from identity theft, domestic violence, muggings, and pick pocketing to having my savings scammed from my bank account on two occasions. On one occasion I even experienced date rape.
On most occasions I became so distressed and traumatised that I was detained under the Mental Health Act and given excess amounts of medication, thus actively preventing me making formal complaints or even addressing my legal issues.
Not once have I received any assistance or support from any of my mental health teams.
It seems to me there is no relationship between the local police and the mental health service users. Indeed, if you have a mental health label and are a victim of crime then it is highly likely that you will be actively deterred from accessing mainstream services such as Victim Support and Camden Safety Net etc, as in my case.
Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust continues to refuse to answer my pressing question: What is the relationship between Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust and the Local Police?
Several months ago, whilst travelling on the 29 bus, I experienced for the second time in a fortnight my purse being stolen. As I believed I could identify the thief I visited Kentish Town Police Station. The policewoman on the front desk, instead of taking my complaint seriously, demanded my phone number because, as she said, “I am going to have the Social Workers take you away because you are rambling”.
Whilst we live in a “Big Brother Society” where our personal details – medical records, for example – are accessible to public bodies like the police, then discrimination and persecution will continue towards those who happen to have a
mental health label.
Our losses are their gains – the more upset and disgruntled we feel towards a society that continues to discriminate/alienate and marginalise us victims of crime and service users – whom I call the silent minority – the more the Mental Health Service justifies its heavy-handedness towards service users, whose human rights are being slowly eroded away.
The recent publicity about theft from elderly people in care does not surprise me at all, considering the relationship between the local police and service users and the elderly in care homes.
I believe the attitude of both the local police and Camden and Islington Mental Care Trust towards victims of crime who also happen to be mental health service users is suppressing the real crime figure’.
Many mental health service users are in fact victims of crime who are in such a state of shock that communication breaks down. It makes matters even worse when a mental health service user who has been a victim of crime attempts to access the appropriate services, only to be discriminated against.
Back in 1999, whilst I was detained against my will under the mental health system at the Huntley Centre, my council flat in Huntley Street was cleared by council workers of everything that I owned and no attempt by the social workers or council workers was made to contact me regarding the return of my property.
Whilst you are being heavily medicated there is very little chance of having any of your legal issues addressed. There is no Independent Advocate service in Camden which is independent of of the Trust or the Town Hall.
Everything is set up for the service users to fail to access their legal rights.
I am not surprised to hear that elderly people forced into local care homes have had their property stolen. One only has to visit mental health local day centre’s and you will discover that many service users are in fact victims of crime and it is us, who are the silent minority which neither the local police nor Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust want to hear from.
It is no wonder that the reported crime figures appear to be falling when in reality a large proportion of crime is not even registered or acknowledged by the authorities in the first place.
NAME SUPPLIED
Baynes Street, NW1
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