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Zito Trust to close
May
18, 2009
......
A
campaign group which for 17 years called for more controls over
violent psychiatric patients has closed, declaring its objectives
have been met.
The
Zito Trust was founded in 1992 by Jayne Zito after her husband,
Jonathan, was stabbed to death on the London underground by Christopher
Clunis who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia six months before.
The
charity pushed for increased measures to protect the public from
potentially violent patients.
It
said a new mental health act which came into effect in October last
year has met this and other objectives.
The
2007 Mental Health Act - which had been opposed by many other mental
health groups - includes the introduction of community treatment
orders. It means that hospital-sectioned mental health patients
are obliged to conform to conditions, including taking medication,
when discharged to live in the community.
The
trust also welcomed that the new act includes giving a wider range
of professions - such as psychologists and nurses - added responsibility
for psychiatric patients.
The
trust also stated said it was satisfied that the new law meant those
diagnosed with personality disorder can now be treated under the
NHS.
A
Zito Trust statement read: "In spite of a significant amount
of opposition to most of these reforms, all of them have now been
incorporated into legislation, principally the Mental Health Act
2007.
"While
it’s clear that one or two pieces of legislation will not
bring about all the improvements needed on their own, we are confident
they will drive new developments in the care of the severely mentally
ill in the community, achieving a much-needed balance between the
therapeutic treatment of the patient and the safety of the public."
The
killing by Clunis turned Jayne Zito into one of Britain's best-known
mental health campaigners.
Clunis,
now 45, has been discharged from Rampton high-security hospital
to a medium-secure unit.
Zito
Trust statement in full
......
Who's done
well out of the mental health act?
From:
Louise Pembroke, mental health campaigner, London
Date:
May 18, 2009
Jolly good - so glad the Zito Trust is pleased that after years
of stigmatising campaigning we finally have a mental health act
which can lock people up just in case they commit an offence and
1200 people are on supervised community treatment orders instead
of the estimated 400 max. Well done guys!
I'm
quite sure that compulsory medication will mean no one with a psychiatric
diagnosis will ever commit a homicide again [approx 50 per year],
just as not taking medication doesn't stop the 5-600 sane and normal
people from killing each year, or one woman dying every week as
a result of domestic violence. Yep makes perfect sense doesn't it!
Pity
so much energy wasn't put into addressing the high rates of unpunished
crimes against people with a psychiatric diagnosis, and our lack
of credibility as witnesses in a court of law.
......
House arrest
next?
From:
Sara Stanton, mental health campaigner, London
Date:
May 22, 2009
I wonder if anyone will be available from what was the Zito Trust
in the time that comes when everyone realises that the mental health
act amendments don't work either.
I’m guessing they will argue that the 2007 mental health act
didn't go far enough ... As for CTOs, perhaps we'll be grappling
with complete house arrest by then!
.....
Campaign
against compulsion
From:
Peter Campbell, mental health activist, Mind Diamond Champion, 2006,
freelance trainer and writer in mental health, London
Date:
May 28, 2009
What we really need to replace the Zito Trust is a campaign to challenge
the use of compulsion in mental health services.
A
20%
rise in percentage being confined over a recent 10 year period
is not just bad news, it is shameful. Simply swallowing hard and
trying to make the new act work is not going to get us where we
want to be.
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