Fighting for their rights.

“I was now a resident, or rather an inmate, of the hospital,” says a mental health service user, of their experience in an institution. “I saw no one except the other people on the floor, who wore identical striped hospital robes and plastic bracelets with identifying names. The mental health workers were the only ones who could open the locked door. I left my hope on the other side of the locked door.” This may seem like a throwback to the experiences people had on mental health wards in decades past but according to the World Health Organization (WHO) not only is this particular person’s encounter with services recent, it is also commonplace in many parts of the world. In fact, the WHO says this example is far from being among the most distressing of the breaches of human rights regularly inflicted upon people with mental health problems. From people being physically abused or kept chained to walls, to being locked up in dirty ‘cell-like’ rooms with little or no amenities, the litany of mistreatment and neglect is extensive. It is also under-reported.