UK Vulnerable patients at great risk under new laws - Law Society press release

[TiredSam]

300,000 people with conditions such as Alzheimer’s, autism or learning disabilities will see their rights - specifically their right to liberty - stripped back every year by imminent changes to the Mental Capacity Act, the Law Society of England and Wales said as the government prepared to push legislation through its final parliamentary stages (26 February).

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/news/press-releases/vulnerable-people-at-great-risk-under-new-laws/

 

[Arnie Pye]

How many more ways can the "Powers That Be" make life shitty for vulnerable people, all in aid of increasing profits?

 

[Sly Saint]

Debate from December 2018 on Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill:

Geraint Davies Labour/Co-operative, Swansea West
I have the privilege of chairing the all-party parliamentary group on speech and language difficulties. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists is concerned about the conflation of mental capacity with speech and language difficulties. It is important we have provision so that people with speech and language difficulties are appropriately assessed and are not banged up because they are thought to be dangerous. There should be enough training in light of the fact that 60% of people in the criminal justice system have speech and language difficulties.

Matthew Hancock Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Before I end, I want briefly to deal with the Opposition’s reasoned amendment, because I hope we are able to show in this debate that all the points they raise have been considered. I hope the House will not mind my taking a moment to address each one briefly. First, they make the claim that somehow the Bill has been rushed through and insufficient pre-legislative scrutiny has been carried out. The Bill follows the Law Commission spending three years developing the new model, consulting extensively. The Joint Committee on Human Rights then conducted an inquiry and pre-legislative scrutiny. The Local Government Association, Age UK and Sir Simon Wessely have all backed the new legislation now.

Barbara Keeley Shadow Minister (Mental Health and Social Care)
The proposals in the Bill to replace deprivation of liberty safeguards have the scope to affect the rights of a large portion of the 2 million people in the UK thought to lack capacity to make their own decisions. Among them are people with dementia, learning disabilities, autism and brain injuries. Whether to deprive some of the most vulnerable people in this country of their liberty should be an issue that we treat with the utmost respect, thought and care. However, I am afraid the Government’s approach to this immensely important issue has shown few of those qualities.

Barbara Keeley Shadow Minister (Mental Health and Social Care)
As the journalist Ian Birrell has exposed in The Mail on Sunday, private sector companies are making enormous profits from admitting people to those units and keeping them there for long periods. Two giant US healthcare companies, a global private equity group, a Guernsey-based hedge fund, two British firms and a major charity are among the beneficiaries of what campaigners have seen as patients being seen as cash cows to be milked by a flawed system at the expense of taxpayers.

Matthew Hancock Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Of course the interface between the Mental Capacity Act and the Mental Health Act will be considered, but Sir Simon himself favours bringing forth the Mental Capacity Act renewal now and then dealing with the Mental Health Act later.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2018-12-18c.725.0

eta: Mail on Sunday article by Ian Birrell mentioned above
Profiteers of Misery: Parents slam health fat cats in UK and US who are raking in as much as £730,000 annually for every autistic child they ‘lock up’ in secretive secure psychiatric units
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-730-000-annually-autistic-child-lock-up.html