Rights and empowerment (Why this is so necessary for recovery.)

PLUS PERTH: 2017 AGM

Rights and empowerment (Why this is so necessary for recovery.)

Graham Morgan – Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland

Hello everyone, thank you so much for inviting me to your AGM and to speak with you.­­­

When I was told the title of this talk I should have been delighted; all these subjects fit so neatly into the world we want to promote and obtain.

But actually I am not so sure that I am as keen as I would wish to be to talk on this subject and that m­­ay be because I am weary or cynical or maybe find some other things more important nowadays.

For those of you that don’t know me I am an Engagement and Participation Officer for the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland. I also work two days a month with a sister group of yours called HUG (action for mental health). I have a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and have been under a compulsory community treatment order for the last seven years.

The Mental Welfare Commissions has, as its strapline, that it is there to uphold and promote the rights of people with a mental disorder; in other words people with a mental illness, personality disorder, learning disability, autism or dementia.

We are in the middle of taking around our guide called ‘Rights in Mind’ which is a guide that lets staff and others know what legal rights we have in the community and especially in hospital around our care and treatment. We also have films about rights on our website and a more detailed document about our rights that you can also find on our website.

And of course it is good to know what our rights are.

As things like the mental health act develop over the years, we find that our rights become more and more a part of treatment, that not only do we have a right to advocacy, or to appeal our section, or to legal representation but we also have a right to be treated with dignity and respect or to be able to get a good standard of health care.

These sorts of things are essential to a modern health service and a modern and ethical society. They are especially important when our freedom is taken away and we may feel that we are not heard. If we did not have rights when we were detained, if we could not point out our right to an advance statement or our right to participate in our care or be informed about our treatment in a way we understand we would be in a sorry state indeed.

And if we did not have people and organisations that could stand up for our rights and monitor the services that we receive then life could be so difficult and the abuse that people have been subject to in the past would never have been challenged and the chances to give us more of a say and control over what happens to us when we are at our most desperate would be even further from our grasp that they are at the moment.

Equally, when as groups like PLUS, we challenge the way our communities are treated it is so useful to be able to look at Scottish, UK and European legislation to back up what we say and if necessary to challenge what we face.

It could be said that if we did not have rights that are backed up in law we would have little progress, little protection, little chance to stand up for ourselves, that if we just said to ourselves people are generally nice, are generally out there to help, that we can trust in our common humanity our shared experience, our belief in the right and wrong ways to treat each other; if we did just that then, sad to say, we could still be subject to those who do seek power over us, see nothing wrong with restricting the services we get in order to save money or just do not see the relevance of our need for support and dignity when they do not know what it is like to suffer or to lose hope.

So yes of course, rights are vital, not only for our protection and to make us safe from abuse but to ensure that we have the life, services, treatments and voice that make our lives more vibrant and more beautiful and especially important at those times when, like me, we can get into a world where such things seem irrelevant, where our death is our obsession and the way we are being treated is something we do not pay attention to or stand up for ourselves.

But and of course there is a but!

I have been speaking with as many groups as I can about rights and the value of them and in many groups I find a blankness a;

‘So what?’,

in contrast some groups say;

‘Yes of course, this is vital, life is so bad, we need to know what our rights are’

but others say;

‘Why talk about rights when we do not even get a service? When the prospect of support or a person who we can trust is so far off that we cannot even consider hope or optimism.’

And I have a great deal of sympathy for that view. When you are weary, when just getting up or making a meal, when you are alone and lost and no one speaks to you why would you get excited about your rights? Why would you feel motivated to challenge how you are treated?

And maybe that is why staff need to know what our rights are too, need to be aware of them and look out for them when we are not in a place to stand up for them; cannot summon the energy to speak out.

I asked Wendy from VOX about this too, and she said for people that feel alienated and shunned and excluded by our society, who, long ago lost faith in our politicians and our helpers. Those of us who are looked on with suspicion, are demonised by the media, then how would they feel positive about someone coming along saying;

‘Your rights are important, your voice is important’

And that is so true, if we feel that the people who look down on us and the communities that excludes are the very people who determine how we should be treated then why ever would we trust in laws or leaflets or speeches saying;

‘This applies to you; take advantage of it.’

And I must admit I have a lot of sympathy with this view too. A couple of weeks ago I met a group talking about their local hospital, saying how impossible it is to get admitted; talking about how there is a white line painted on the ward that visitors are not allowed to cross and they said;

‘How will a booklet alter the fact that my lover is not allowed to cross over a line and hold me and cuddle me when I am sad and alone?’

And I must admit that I totally agree with this.

We ended up talking about what we can do about the injustice we experience: following the model you use here in PLUS Perth; by speaking out, by gaining support from each other and by sharing experiences we can retrieve some of the dignity that we have lost, we can create a voice that has been denied us, we can take back some of the power that many of us feel we have lost or indeed never had.

And I do like that. I love the connection we can create when we look around us and meet people in similar situations. I like the buzz of optimism when we say;

‘If no one else will stand up for us then we will do so ourselves.’

And I like the practicality with which we then say;

‘If people will not listen to our group and our community then we will also go to those people whose job it is to speak up for us, to do that speaking out, to ally with us and create change.’

The fact that we can talk amongst ourselves and say;

‘This is wrong, we do have rights; we will not only speak out ourselves but we will expect those who have the role of speaking out and changing things to do just that.’

That is the political perspective to empowerment; that discovery of our voice and power as both individuals and a community. That recognition that we are worth it; are valuable; are people to treasure and respect and listen to.

But both with empowerment and with rights I have this caution.

By using our rights and standing up for what we are due I would be sad if our treatment became a battleground of;

‘You must do this and this and this.’

instead of a chance to have dialogue.

And, equally, by regaining our power and our identity, I would be sad if we felt that that entitled us to have power over other people; to demonise other communities and groups for what we feel they have done to us.

When I worked with HUG, we were explicitly about gaining both power and voice but much more often our members talked of something different in our group which provided the bedrock for their involvement; something I think we share with you in Plus Perth.

To my mind, to truly liberate ourselves, to truly gain power we stop measuring ourselves against others and instead learn of the power of connection and belonging.

For me, one of the best things when I meet people is when I find out that they have experienced mental illness and that I do not have to hold tight to the mask of normality or keep that polite smile on my face when I hear stigmatising remarks.

For me power is almost a side issue to what we can gain when we share a cup of tea, have a conversation, where we feel open and relaxed with each other, where we go for a walk along a river together, eat together, garden together, learn together.

I labour the point. I maybe cannot express it properly but I find that for those of us that can manage company, something liberating happens when we are allowed to be ourselves, when we feel free to speak, when we feel free to be who we are without fear of judgement and the gradual withdrawal of those around us.

For me empowerment comes into its own when we have the confidence in ourselves to believe in ourselves, to think we have worth and that there is worth in those around us; worth even in those that we are suspicious and wary of.

It comes when, having expected others to be tolerant of our difference, that we are tolerant of other people’s difference too. Where, instead of immediately hating the differing opinions of others, we celebrate these as chances to communicate and learn and meet new people.

It does seem to me that if we can empower ourselves rather than have someone decide that they are going to empower us that this sets us onto the road of recovery.

For me it is isolation and loneliness, it is lack of confidence and lack of hope, it is feeling apart and alien and useless, it is feeling that society rejects us and people like us, that leads to something awful.

By gaining power, by gaining connection, by believing we have a right to belong even when we struggle to speak, struggle to work, struggle to make friends or even live. Having this, having not only a belief in ourselves but a belief in each other and our interconnectedness is a route to a better ,more fulfilling, more vibrant life.

I started off this talk by saying I struggle with rights and empowerment and have now explained both my reservations and my wonder at what such things can do.

I’ll finish with a brief mention of recovery.

I know many of my friends struggle hugely with this word.

The word itself not only implies that we will become well again, but that by our own efforts and by taking responsibility, we can succeed in life; cast aside despair and illness and flourish.

For some of us this is offensive; trying to manage when we cannot cope, trying to be responsible and independent when we struggle to make a decision, trying to cast aside an illness which is after all just, that an illness, which may not be easy to escape from, is downright disrespectful; almost an insult to some of us, who have suffered so much for so many years.

And equally there is the currency of recovery that now seems to be an excuse for short term intervention, for being discharged from help as soon as possible, for being told to buck up and take control when we cannot manage. This does not sit well with me. In many ways I think the word recovery has become a sub text for cutting services, for attacking communities, for forcing people into employment and wellness when that is completely beyond some of us.

But to contradict myself – when we get back to the roots of the concept of recovery – when we can find our own ways of having a better life. When we can decide what that life should be. When we can decide if we are happy with where we are in our lives and when that is respected, then I think this is very valuable indeed and I think all the reservations about empowerment and rights become nothing. They are actually one of the key methods of finding dignity and self worth and belonging.

And that is wonderful. For many years I felt alone and for many years I felt people did not understand me. I thought that by fighting the system I could change this isolation and I have found that it makes a huge difference. I have also found that by sharing our struggle with others even more progress can be made and finally, by at long last, finding people in mental health services who have genuinely helped me, and finally friends, family, the people I love and trust and want to be with.

I find that, despite my diagnosis and some of my thoughts, that I do have a rich fulfilling and hugely enjoyable life. I wish everyone else had that. I think groups like PLUS Perth can go a long way to achieve some of this but so can many other people, many other communities.

A while back I said we need rights because we cannot just trust people to do the right thing but I also think until we do trust those around us and have faith in each other then there is little we can really achieve.

Thank you

(Photo: the front cover of a wonderful art book on Recovery; The Journey Home by the late Lorraine Nicholson)

For more information on the Mental Welfare Commission visit : https://www.mwcscot.org.uk/