Sheffield tram turned into padded cell to fight mental health prejudice

January 26, 2009
by Staff Reporter

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A Sheffield tram has today been turned into a padded cell as part of a campaign against mental health discrimination.

The move is part of a Time to Change campaign run by three charities. The campaign aims to bring about a measurable 5% decrease in mental illness and 5% reduction in discrimination by 2012.

See also:
Jan 16, 2008: Stigma is no laughing matter - Adam James profiles Sue Baker, head of the largest ever campaign to tackle the stigma linked to mental health

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Get your priorities right

From: Louise Pembroke, mental health activist, London
Date: January 26, 2009

About as useful as a chocolate teapot, I fail to see what this achieves. Do Time for Change [how much did their pointless rebranding from 'Moving People' cost?] really believe that stunts like this change people's views? Perhaps they'd like to tackle the more important issues in people's lives like housing, healthcare, benefits, the impact of psychiatric diagnosis [especially personality disoder], the fact that you can't access ANY social supports without a diagnosis, the fact that this results in diagnostic overshadowing, the fact that occupational health depts 'red flag' anyone with history of 'psychosis' or self harm, the fact that some mental health charities use these occupational health reports to decide on whether someone is fit for work, the fact that people now feel criminalised by politicians and legislation. How someone treats you on a sodding train kinda pales by comparison.

As for the employment is good for your mental health mantra, tell that to the person who doesn't have a degree or professional skill doing minimum wage manual work with no sick pay, and why oh why do so many projects focus on gardening or catering. Thiis has always been the case. What is this fixation within OT, rehab, "recovery" or "work" related projects that all service users love gardening and catering?

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Reality's not a soundbite stunt

From: Louise Jones, tutor, London
Date: January 26, 2009

I really do struggle to see what this approach to challenging discrimination actually achieves... are we saying the people on THAT bus don't need to be in a padded cell?

"What about the people on the other buses?” that’s the response I had when I asked colleagues about their response to this stunt.

I just wish we could be a little more sophisticated when we undertake these campaigns. In order to challenge stigma and discrimination, we really need to start addressing the underlying causes – and that have very little to do with driving buses around Sheffield...the underlying causes are boring though, they are not sexy – i.e. diagnostic discrimination, poverty trap caused by benefits, inappropriate use of legislation like DDA, human resources policy and procedures, medical questionnaires attached to occupational health assessments to name a few.... these are the grinding realities of people’s lives. Alas these stories are not 'newsworthy' or sexy.....if it’s Time To Change , then I really wish we would change our approach to tackling discrimination, as the issues people face are more complex than some 'soundbite' type stunt, they are deadly (in some cases) serious.

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Time to reflect reality

From: Peter Campbell, former Mind Diamond Champion, founder of mental health campaigning group Survivors Speak Out, freelance trainer and writer, London
Date: January 29, 2009

I have mixed feelings about using stunts with mocked up padded cells to put across the point that we are all really the same as each other - we can all make it on the bus to work.

I don't believe we are all the same and we shouldn't be ashamed of our differences. Part of the reason for our difference is that some of us get chewed up in the mental health system.

The rate of detentions increased 20% in the 1996 to 2006 period and latest figures show that more than 1000 people a year are spending time in solitary confinement in police cells awaiting assessment under the Mental Health Act.

I hope that in due course Time For A Change will do something to reflect that reality and its causes and not satisfy itself with bland soundbites.

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No tram ride to work with a diagnosis

From: Louise Jones, tutor, London
Date: January 29, 2009

Absolutely agree Peter. The point of the stunt was meant to show people with mental health problems just ‘getting on with their lives’ aka travelling about town - like any other member of the general public. The problem here, though - as you link with the mental health act - is that as someone (myself) who has been sectioned, it’s actually really difficult to ‘get on with your life’ after you have used mental health services or been detained under the act... You may be able to sit on a bus (although Freedom passes are getting more and more difficult for people to come by who used to be entitled), but don’t bother trying to access financial, business, insurance or travel services. That tram ‘to work’ (if your lucky enough to have a job) gets awful difficult to get on when it comes to occupational health assessments after you have been detained under the mental health act or received a specific diagnosis. Time To Change, within the energy it has spent worrying about stunts on trams, has really missed the boat as far as tackling discrimination is concerned.

By having such a narrow focus, which does not tackle any of the underlying reasons why stigma and discrimination exists – the metaphorical public transportation is just not that accessible for people who have used mental health services. And if all they wanted to do was move people about on trams, then they should not have bothered rebranding as ‘Moving People’ seems much more suitable a name for the latest stunt.

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Reinforcing cliches

From: Anne-Laure Donskoy, service user and research coordinator, User Focused Monitoring, Bristol
Date: February 1, 2009

This is yet another tram to nowhere and we, survice users and survivors, will be the ones hitting the wall.

If I had known how they would use the information, when they consulted people on the subject about a year ago, I would not have bothered filling in the questionnaire.

Having been sectioned or not makes no difference in terms of getting bus passes. They are now in fact more difficult to get than the concessionary passes of a few years ago and the new passes exclude more people than before as councils interpret the law in different ways in different areas of the country.

For me a padded cell/tram can only reinforce all cliches surrounding mental distress.

We also forget to be honest and recognise that there is also stigma and discrimination among service users and survivors.

When I finally went back to work after 15 years out, with relapses every now and then, my fellow service users considered me as "not one of them" anymore. You could either be ill or in work, but absolutely not a working service user. Yeah, great.

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Recovering ground

From: Louise Pembroke, service user and mental health activist, London
Date: February 2, 2009

Spot on Anne-Laure, sadly many of our peers have swallowed the recovery agenda and can police each other as regards what constitutes "recovery" with viewing those in work as OK and then berating those in receipt of benefits. You can't win! [ditto same problem with using/not using services].

I would like to see what's left of the user/survivor movement address it's own discrimination within, but I doubt this will happen. I'd like to see the millions spent on stupid stunts addressing more meaningful issues like travel passes, occupational health, discrimination within the NHS, discrimination within government acts, supporting survivors to access education and work in a meaningful way, and supporting survivors who need to remain doing voluntary work.
Watch that pig fly....

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