The mistreatment and abuse of mentally ill patients is a national disgrace

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

A damning new report has found that patients detained under the Mental Health Act are being subject to mistreatment (PA)

That people with severe mental health problems are subject to mistreatment while detained under the Mental Health Act (Mentally ill subject to "physical violence and verbal threats”) is appalling.

Mental health units should be caring, therapeutic environments, but for some that is not the case, including many of the most vulnerable women and girls.

The interim report of the independent review into the Mental Health Act draws attention to how the process of detention can be re-traumatising to those who have experienced abuse.

More than half of women with a mental health problems have experienced violence and abuse. Yet, this is often not taken into account when they are detained, resulting in care that fails to meet their needs and can even make situations worse – with the use of restraints being a particular concern.

Alarmingly, the report also draws attention to mental health patients who have been abused by family members. Agenda is concerned that under the Mental Health Act these abusers may be able to have a say in patients’ care. This puts women and girls at risk and must be ended urgently.

If patients detained under the Mental Health Act are to get the support they require, we need to see care that takes into account experiences of trauma and abuse. Investment in mental health services is also vital to ensure women and girls get the help they need, when they need it, and before reaching crisis point.

Katharine Sacks-Jones – director, Agenda

Lords, take note

My dictionary defines the word “democracy” as “government by the people”.

Perhaps somebody should remind the members of the House of Lords that they are living in a democracy.

Colin Bower
​Sherwood

Our rail services are abysmal at best

At the weekend I made a return journey from Warminster in Wiltshire to Seaford in East Sussex. On the Brighton to Seaford part of the journey Southern rail was running a replacement bus service. To be fair, works to maintain the safety of the tracks are acceptable despite being inconvenient.

What was not acceptable was the Great Western Service between Warminster and Brighton. On both legs of the journey seat reservations were not available, despite them being on tickets, nor was there a refreshment trolley service. On the outward journey there were also no toilets and locked rubbish bins.

These trains are on a route that runs between Brighton and either Malvern or Gloucester, journeys that last for hours. They are well used, with few, if any, empty seats.

So the trains are both crowded and lacking in basic facilities.

My own journeys were not the only ones with problems. I heard an announcement at Warminster telling passengers that the direct train to Waterloo had been cancelled. The next direct train wasn’t due for hours. Although getting to Waterloo is possible by changing at Salisbury, this is easier said than done if you have mobility problems, have small children or heavy luggage and have to negotiate the underpass between platforms.

On the return journey it was announced that passengers who wanted to go to Exeter should change at Salisbury unless they had advance tickets, in which case they must wait to change at Westbury for a slower journey. This I assume is because the faster train is run by a different train company.

The train services for the South-west are just plain not acceptable. We have to put up with old coaches that look tired and scruffy. The only trains that are anywhere near acceptable are the ones going to and from London.

Richard Beeching decimated our rail network. Where I live, there are hardly any railway stations, which is why I make a one hour drive to get the train at Warminster.

The rationale for privatisation of the railways was that it would improve services for passengers. It doesn’t seem to have worked for the South-west.

I would support the renationalisation of the railways as we are not getting a good deal out of the present situation.

Rosemary Hasler
Wedmore

Don't feel sorry for Amber Rudd

So Rudd has resigned from a job she's not trained or academically qualified to do? Just like all the rich boys and girls, former TV presenters and, quite frankly, socially inept other ministers, she has not actually lost her job. Out here in the real world, resign and you have no job. No income. She will continue with a very substantial salary from which she will spend little as they allegedly claim a large amount back anyway. Eye test for a staff member? Claim it back (Hunt). Short car journey less than a quid? Claim it back (Hunt). Remembrance wreath? Claim it back (Johnson).

So I shed no tears nor feel any empathy in a world of food banks, suicide, loneliness and the utter hypocrisy of every Tory in that chamber.

Dr R Kimble
Leeds

Animal charm

It appears China has banned Peppa Pig for no obvious reason. Although I am not a watcher of this show I doubt that it is too subversive for the under sixes. Now if they want to ban British shows for their anti-authoritarian behaviour there can be no better candidate than Shaun the Sheep who “even mucks about with those who cannot bleat” and seems to always cause trouble on the farm – or “rural collective”.

Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne

We need national identity cards

Modern social democracies with their comprehensive welfare systems and liberal social attitudes are unprepared for the phenomenon of mass migration. This is especially true of the UK. Surely, this calls for the introduction of a national identity card. Many will object that an identity card is unBritish but some such thing, for instance, will be needed to account for those EU migrants who will have the right of permanent residence post-Brexit.

Yugo Kovach
Dorset