Happy New Year, and the Campaign Broadens

Dear All,

Although it's now already over three weeks into the new year, please accept my greetings to you all for a prosperous time in the rest of 2008.

Things are starting to happen in respect of the campaign about proper investigations into the deaths of those detained under the Mental Health Act. Firstly, I'm drawing up a campaign statement to ask that the law is changed to ensure inquests by juries in such cases, which will then be open to the signature of NGOs, individuals and public figures. This I hope to be able to share with you all next week, with more detailed plans about the campaign.

In addition, the Independent on Sunday will be running an article this weekend featuring my mum's case and analysing the broader legal situation which I've written about on this site at some length. Hopefully this will provide a springboard for a broader public debate on the adequacy of these death investigations and we will be able to redouble our pressure for change to occur within the coronial system. Please get a copy if you can.

I also just wanted to remind everyone that the petition calling for a change in the law - at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Coroners/ - is due to close for signatures at the end of this month. All we're asking for is that the deaths of detained patients are treated as seriously as those that occur in prisons and police stations - the logic is almost painful in its moral clarity. We really need more signatures to get a good response from the government so please consider clicking the link above if you have not already done so.

In a deeply disturbing case where Geoffrey Hodgkin died in 2004 whilst under Section after being restrained, a public inquiry report at the end of last year uncovered similar institutional calamities as occurred around my mum's death. Failures included the inability of staff to use resuscitation equipment, extremely poor management, training and oversight of staff, and the complete unwillingness of the mental health trust to engage with subsequent investigations. Geoffrey's death, like my mother's, highlight again the inadequacy of the the government's protection of our most vulnerable citizens, which my family and I believe cannot be allowed to continue. More details about Geoffrey Hodgkin's case can be found in the inquiry report at http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/media/hosp20061101r7.pdf.

We hope that, like Geoffrey's family, by standing up to the overwhelming disinterest in matters of life and death in our mental health institutions, we can push for severely overdue reforms to a system that regularly breaches the most fundamental of human rights. It is truly saddening that, in 2008, we are still having to make such basic demands for human dignity, and even more saddening that most people are completely unaware of the situation. We will continue shouting until our point is acted upon.

With best wishes to you all,
Steven Allen