SCRAP SECTION 136 MENTAL HEALTH ACT

The purpose of this petition is to raise awareness on the pitfalls of the Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (revised in 2007) UK Law, as there is no reliable research and no apparent intention by government services to produce such research on the actual application, effectiveness, compliance to procedure and guidelines, population composition or its epidemiology.

Based on the above facts I am campaigning for and demand the immediate removal of the Section 136 from the Mental Health Act based on lack of research on its application and effectiveness and, in some cases, for being wrongly misused to control healthy populations.

The Section 136 of the MHA allows police services to "remove to a place of safety" individuals who are believed to be at risk of harming themselves or others when found in a public place.

The guidelines for the use of the Section 136 by the Metropolitan Police are set in the document CR149 Standards on the use of the S136/MHA set out by the Care Quality Commission in conjunction with the NHS and the Metropolitan Police.

Within these guidelines, it is stated that police cells should be avoided as "places of safety", however this is routinely done. It is also stated that individuals should be taken to the "nearest hospital", however the police has a certain protocol and the nearest hospital is for them defined as the hospital they have chosen within their protocol, not corresponding to actual physical distance.

The document CR149 mentions reception of individuals suspected to suffer a mental health condition it does not mention "denigration" prior to arrival at a "place of safety" by the police.

There are numerous case studies published on the internet on the misuse and abuse of the Section 136 MHA by the police due to their poor training, misconceptions and prejudiced behaviours, including that of a man who has taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights. He will not be the first not the last until changes take place to protect ill or healthy individuals from this law used to control as opposed to help society.

In my research on the use and application of the S136 MHA I produced a long list of questions that I then asked under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) via my solicitor to my selected organisations including the Ministry of Justice, The Home Office, The Office for National Statistics, The Royal College of Psychiatrists, The General Medical Council (GMC), The General Social Care Council (GSCC), Barnet Council, The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and The National Health Service (NHS).

NONE OF THE ABOVE HAD ANSWERS TO MY HIGHLY RELEVANT QUESTIONS.

* With the exception of question 4 answered by the IPCC, NO ONE had answers to any of these questions, with some claiming it would take thousands of days for lots of people to gather, collate, collect, classify and analyse any such data.

There are no studies whatsoever on the psychological impact on individuals, children and their families of the use of the S136 of the MHA by the police.

It is concluded that the use of the Section 136 of the MHA by the metropolitan police is being misused and abused, not properly understood, disregarding all guidelines and procedures.

This impacting in the performance of the social services which at the same time are intrinsically chaotic in their ways of assessing, recommending and properly investigating matters creating misunderstanding, exaggerating matters, lacking total knowledge or understanding on the matters at hand and therefore creating unnecessary nightmarish situations for the general public. THIS MUST BE STOPPED AT ONCE.

https://sites.google.com/site/s136independentresearch/

See the above website link for my research, with the Royal College of Psychiatrists confirming the lack of research and the responses from the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health claiming they have no idea of how this law is being used.

The handcuffing, mental and physical abuse of individuals found by police to be or considered to be suffering a mental health condition MUST BE STOP NOW.
Together with the subsequent stigmatisation and discrimination by social services is a HUMAN RIGHTS BREACH AND COMPLETE DENIGRATION.

These has been done to individuals that were making their own way to hospital and in need of help, traumatising them and destroying their lives.