Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-05-Speech-2-333"
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"en.20060905.27.2-333"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, I have worked for many years on issues of concern to people with disabilities and those who serve them. Some progress has been made for some people with some disabilities. Sadly, this progress has not for the most part been shared by people who experience mental illness.
Judging from the keen interest in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, Members are aware that in our very midst people with mental illness are being subjected to the inhuman abuses of involuntary institutionalisation and hospitalisation, compulsory drugging and other medical treatments, physical restraint and force, while also being subject to discrimination in the workplace, exclusion in the community and suspicion on the part of public services.
Fortunately, there was a real sense in the committee that this must change, that priority must be given to approaches to treatment that enable people to achieve remission and recovery, as well as to inclusion, the prevention of mental illness and the promotion of mental health. Finally, there must be recognition that every human person is valuable and worthy of respect and that this respect demands that we allow people to speak and decide for themselves whenever humanly possible.
As we work through the process of formulating a European mental health strategy, the most important question we should ask ourselves is: will this make someone’s life better? I should like to congratulate Mr Bowis on his report, which contains many good things: an admittance that pharmaceuticals can cause more mental illness than they cure; a recognition of the importance of childhood for mental health with a call for support for families; a recognition that employment can affect mental health for better and for worse; and the need to consult those who have recovered from mental illness to learn how recovery happened. This is a good start but, if we are going to truly help someone with this strategy, then we must take into account the whole person and to do so the strategy will have to include concepts like nutrition and failure, especially student failure, and for this reason I particularly support the amendments by Mrs Breyer.
We also need to look at concepts as yet unmentioned, such as hope and fear, creativity and expression, faith and spirituality. It amazes me that we can write a whole strategy without ever mentioning the words ‘spirit’ or ‘spirituality’. It is important for us to accept that there are moments of crisis, sorrow and strain in all of our lives and that when we experience them we may need support and we may need understanding, but we do not always need a diagnosis and a drug. Getting it right is so important. When we consider suicide, then we see that getting it right can even be a matter of life and death."@en1
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