Present: Margaret Hobbs; Rufus May; Lou Cadman; Chris Freudenberg; Carla Willig; Ian Smith; Robert Johnson; Emma Jacobs; Brian Channell; Linda Fernando; Janet; Hermione Thornhill; Robin Hanau; Philip Dixon-Phillips; Paul Wren; Kerry Scutts; Ange Drinnan; Wendy Lee; Barney Williams; Steve Halperin; Paul Ellis; Dave Harper.

Apologies: Rosanna Cavallo; Jacqui Dillon; Jan Holloway; Tracy Millar; Mike Slade.

Reports from conferences and events

1. There had been a conference organised by Pavilion entitled ‘what is mental health care all about?’ including speakers Anthony Sheehan and Lucy Johnstone.
2. Rufus had been a member of an All in the Mind’s panel discussing questions relared to ‘schizophrenia’ following an earlier programme which had had a contribution by Peter Chadwick (author of Schizophrenia: A Positive Perspective). Also there had been Cliff Prior (NSF), Robin Murray (Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry) and a psychiatrist working in an assertive outreach team. Questions had been prepared by MIND, SANE, NSF and Diana Rose. A lot of the questions had been hard to respond to because of their presuppositions. Interestingly Robin Murray seemed to be entertaining doubts about the existence of schizophrenia as an entity, talking instead about the need to look at ‘components’. There was discussion about how this may be a strategy like the 1970s where dissent was assimilated into the mainstream, with some criticisms of schizophrenia being accepted in order to head off more radical critique. He’d also stated that any difference in diagnosis rates (eg black people more likely to get the diagnosis of schizophrenia) was not because of any genetic factor since studies in the Caribbean reveal a much lower incidence there of schizophrenia. He felt it was more to do with social factors though he placed most emphasis on the ‘stresses of migration’ rather than racism. There was discussion about the differences between what people’s private views might be as opposed to their public institutional views. Rufus’ comments about Clozapine had been cut.
3. Virtuall.org.uk (Contact Bridget Varley on 020 7706 4822): Robert Johnson reported back from the ‘people who need people’ conference organised by this new government initiative. One of the presentations had been about trying to recruit a wider range of people into posts. As a result, SLAM Trust had found they had had 100 people applying for a Daily Living Skills therapist post. Another presentation was about service users in Barnet getting involved in the training of junior doctors. Rufus said that Virtuall were being approached for funding to set up a conference entitled ‘Beyond Belief’ for the London Hearing Voices Network. Despite a lot of rhetoric it seems many projects are having funding cut.
4. A report in Which magazine by Nigel Crisp on Patients Forums had noted that many of these seemed to be focused on a staff-generated agenda. There seem to be some backward steps with regard to user representation.
5. Other news: There had been an Independent Carers and Users Conference. There had been a Justice for Patients event; There was to be a ‘user’s pre-conference’ before the World Federation of Mental Health in Melbourne in February 2003.
6. Tracy Millar had suggested running in next year’s London marathon to raise money and awareness. Some discussion about whether money raised had to be a charity (given that charity’s have constraints on how ‘political’ they can be) and whether any political messages would be covered by the media.

Rufus has lost the list he made after the last meeting of people who said they’d like to be involved in planning and being involved in the next demo so contact him. He said there had been discussion about two potential targets. Firstly to picket a tabloid newspaper to campaign against discriminatory reporting of mental health issues. Secondly, to demonstrate at the Department of Health (DoH) in Whitehall against the Mental Health Act reforms. It seemed that most people thought we should focus on the latter. He suggested we think of imaginative, visual and funny ideas to catch the media’s attention. He mentioned the mass walk-in to Menwith Hill USAF base last year when demonstrators rushed in dressed up as missiles. He also asked people to consider what the best timing was – were there any events which could be hijacked? After some short introductory remarks from Rufus we split into small groups to generate some ideas. Feeding back the following came up:

• Link up with other groups (Mad Pride, Critical Psychiatry, Amnesty International, Mindlink, Human Rights Watch, Mental Health Alliance? etc)
• Wearing Tony Blair masks
• Showing how contradictory the government’s policies are, maybe enlarging quotes from the White Paper on service users being ‘nuisances’ with stuff about ending exclusion in the National Service Framework.
• Wearing white coats with devil’s masks? Or witch clown costumes?
• Dressing up as Tsars (as in Mental Health Tsars!).
• Having two heads (as in popular stereotypes of ‘schizophrenics’)
• Best to have it in Summer – a light news period and hopefully sunny. Query whether any suitable events. Social work conference on 22 May too soon.
• Target the DoH offices in Whitehall
• Have everyone briefed with 2 or 3 soundbite-type messages (eg human rights: ‘whose human rights, are we not human?)
• Have a mock-up of Article 5 of the European convention and blow it up
• The media like a new angle – is there one? Last year they liked the notion of survivors and professionals together. The BBC talked about ‘patients picketing their psychiatrists’
• Trying to conduct a ‘People’s Section’ of a Minister like Alan Milburn because of coming out with contradictory (thought disordered? Delusional?!) ideas. We could dress up as doctors, police officers and social workers.
• Discussion about trying to get Channel 4’s Mark Thomas Product involved since they do a lot of campaigning – see if they’re interested in something on the Act or drug companies.
• Have a ball and chain with ‘mental health act’ or ‘drugs’ on it.
• We could lock people up in some fashion.
• Build a giant syringe and/or a giant pill. We could hand in the pill to the DoH.
• Use an image of ‘hearing voices’
• Use the ‘it could be you’ lottery slogan and have a giant blue hand – it could be you who experiences a crisis and it could also be you who gets compulsorily treated.
• Have a giant fruit & nut cake with people jumping out.
• Draft a letter that people could write to their MP and hand out.
• Try to get celebs involved (eg John Peel and Home Truths, Paul Merton, Stephanie Cole, Annette Crosby; Billy Connelly; Pamela Stevenson, Alan Davies, Tony Slattery, Jeremy Hardy, John Hegley, Mark Thomas etc – Helen has contacts).
• Link with poetry and art exhibitions – we could ask a centre to do something on the theme opf compulsion. Contacts with survivor’s poetry? Diorama space may be a good venue. Need to link into other networks. Would Aidan Shingler (who did the Valentine’s card for psychiatrists) be interested in doing something?
• See if Sacha Baron Cohen would do Ali G interviewing a psychiatrist (Steve knows someone who knows someone …)
• Have a rally with guest speakers?
• Use images of historical figures who’ve experienced mental health problems (eg Winston Churchill, George III)
• Use balloons!
• Promote alternatives
• Use lots of straightjackets
• Timing: any Human Rights-related dates coming up?
• Do some street theatre?
• Leaflets and stickers – need for funding
• Organise a benefit gig

Rufus said he would organise a group to plan the event so get in touch with names!

1. The suggestion about money led to discussion about whether if the Forum collected money there would need to be a management group or collective. At the moment there is no formal management group. Dave Harper maintains an email list (approx 100 people) and name and address labels, Carla Willig does mailings using these labels (about 40-50 mailings) and Duncan Double maintains the web-site and 'newmentalhealth' discussion list – these are done with no charge. Kerry Scutts collects money from the whipround and does the room bookings. This is the only money the Forum has. This led into a discussion about the aims of the group. Was there a need to be get funding/collect money (which might mean being more formally constituted) and to look again at the aims? Dave said this was something that had been discussed many times before with no major changes – members seemed happy with discussion and occasional action -- and it would mean a lot more work. It was suggested that the next meeting be focused on this. An alternative suggestion for the next meeting was to look at employment – two potential presenters mentioned included Rachel Perkins and Mark Bertram. The room had to be vacated as we’d over-run before a topic was agreed.