Mental health: ethnic minority experiences

So every single day for a very, very long time, I can't even remember how many months, for every single day for several months they'd come to see me at home and I'd tell them this is how I've been feeling. But the thing is that even though I was talking to them my condition was worsening and it was worsening. It came to a period where, you know, they couldn't keep me in the house but what they did do on, on occasions was to put me in the respite unit which we had in the, it was a respite unit that was part of the mental health service, but was in the community and it was a place where people can go and use the services, or use some of the provision that was available such as read books and... And it was away from the outside world, it was, you know, a lot of the time the world is a busy place and people are moving around so it was somewhere where you could go and relax and just have, you know, be with other service users and just enjoy yourself and etcetera. And I spent three or four weeks there and I did that frequently so whenever there was tension in the house, whenever I started shouting at people, in my family, that's when it was decided, you know, you can go there. 

But to be honest, you know, there's a lot of talk that, that mental staff are very sort of, they take it to the extreme that they deliberately section people. To be honest at no point was a section considered in my case. My doctors and my nurses were some of the most compassionate, some of the most warm, some of the most kindest people that I'd ever come across because whenever my, whenever my family brought up sectioning because I, you know, for them it was a new thing that I was unwell and they were quite frightened to have me in the house and stuff, the, the, the doctors were saying no we're not going to because we feel that we can't, we want him to stay in the community because he's young and we have a lot of, we have, we see a lot out there for him because, and we know that we, he has a future in front of him and we want to treat him at home. and the thing is that over time, over the last four or five, three or four years that I've been a patient they've seen me gradually recover in front of them and, and they've never had to section me…

And why do you think you haven't been sectioned?

Why? That's a good question because, number one I think that no young person should be in a hospital, it's a very dangerous place for a child, it can be very frightening for a child. children and young people and adults we develop in two different ways, adults are completely different from young people we have different dependency levels and etcetera so I think on that, because in hospitals it's only those that are eighteen and over mainly or those between thirty and over, the majority of the patients are over twenty five, they're usually in their thirties of forties. You wouldn't put a seventeen year old onto the same ward as a forty year old whose condition is far more worse, who poses a significant threat to all the patients. So it's better that a child is, is around the people that love them most, their family because that's where a child should be. And even like every professional I talk to they always say that a child's home should not be in the hospital it should be in their own home, it should be in the school where they go to school. They shouldn't be living in a hospital that's not the place to be. A child should be in the home, an adult can be in a hospital because an adult poses far more of a risk to, to other, to the public than a child would. A child has, you know, has limited sort of strength when it comes to the, because if you look back at the last ten years you'll see that no young person has ever been jailed, no young person who has, who has experienced mental health diffi

So I think that being supported in the community has been beneficial for me and it's also helped, it hasn't tarnished my records because once you're sectioned it actually bars you from taking up certain positions in society because from what I understand, from what I've learnt is that if, once you're sectioned you're not allowed to do voluntary jobs that may require you to work with the public, you may be barred from becoming I don't know a professional in some areas you know, you can't even become an academic, academic if you're sectioned. 

But if you've experienced mental health difficulties but you're not sectioned you can, that's the big difference. And for example there was a famous guy in the United States and I've forgotten his name, John, he was a US professor who suffered mental health difficulties, there was a film done about him called the Beautiful Mind, Professor John Nash. John Nash was a professor who suffered very serious mental health but he was never sectioned. Although the film was a bit exaggerated and it didn't give an accurate depiction of his life he took medication but he was allowed to stay as a professor but what they did say to him was that if, if he was sectioned and then couldn't continue his career and that's what his, what people should differentiate that, people that experience mental health difficulties can go onto become success, successful but people that are sectioned it may be far more difficult for them because they, people that are sectioned it's far more difficult for them to access services and for people to sort of, because of the legal processes in this country it's quite difficult to sort of, I don't now I'm not sure how I can word it but I don't know how to word it so I'm not going to continue on that bit. but I think people that do experience mental health difficulties but are not sectioned do far more better than people that are sectioned. Winston Churchill, as I was saying, he suffered depression he was never sectioned, Abraham Lincoln was never sectioned many of the, you know, 

Beethoven, the famous classical, he, he was, he suffered from mental health, what's that guy's name, the guy who inspired Mahatma Ghandi, Tolstoy, he suffered from mental health, he mentioned in one of his books that he suffered from mental health difficulties. Many of the most significant figures in the 20th century and even before suffered mental health difficulties. So, but the majority of them were not sectioned, I don't think any of them were, they were, they took medication, they suffered from depression but they were never sectioned and they've gone onto to do very well for themselves so I think that I've actually benefited by not being sectioned.

But anyway so I went into hospital and… was there, I think about six, at least, at least six months, hated hospital for you know, you know, hated hospital, couldn't escape and started the process of a tribunal because I wanted, well I got into, I think I was there for about six, eight months or something but after about four months I said, “Oh I really want to leave this place,” and I was afraid that my, my bed at the hostel would go and I didn't want you know, to be homeless again. And well not homeless again but you know, you know, so I was sure that I'd find you know, somewhere to live but I just, you know, that was nice and clean and everything and you know, the people there, living there were good, it was you know, somewhere nice. anyway started a tribunal to get out of hospital and then, and won that, or semi won that, they had an agreement, the doctors agreed that I agreed with the doctors that I wouldn't leave immediately but they had, they said they were going to let me go in a few weeks' time anyway so if I agreed to sort of just waiting till that time I would definitely be released. So I agreed and they stuck to their word so I got released and went back to the hostel.