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1 March (updated with Tweets, 2017)
Well, no...
Crediting @TimetoChange, an Act in 2013 won significant victory for the rights of those subject to #mh diagnoses :https://t.co/iR5pFbNqGo
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 6, 2017
Mental Health (Discrimination) Act 2013 may not be the shortest Act of Parliament, but...
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 6, 2017
It comprises 4 sectionshttps://t.co/ff80eqlbVs
By comparison Mental Health Act 2007 amended Mental Health Act 1983 :https://t.co/yxiVPjWeUg
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) January 6, 2017
2007 Act : 59 sections, 11 Schedules
QED ? https://t.co/LPgU2pM1di
Despite the mental-health charities waving flags, I do not think that it has changed very much - or in the right way - for most people, and this is why :
1. How many people will ever be a company director, and is just removing bars relating to mental health, without regard to safeguarding shareholders and those with whom the company may do business or interact, the right approach ? Limitations on being fit to act as a director that do not stereotype mental ill-health, but reflect the fact that it and many other criteria might make staying a director inappropriate, should have been considered.
2. Some can now serve on a jury, itself not an everyday calling (many enough are never asked), but - across the board - not someone on a Community Treatment Order. That is still wildly discriminatory.
3. Of the groundbreaking areas, being an MP is the thing anyone is least likely to do. Rather than just doing away with the previous law, the law should have been revised, so that an MP is as capable of carrying out parliamentary and constituency duties over time as a company director.
Three roles that affect almost no one in ordinary life, and this is a triumph ? No, it is just repealing legislation, rather than considering what should have been passed in its place ! It paves the way for no new and better legislation to deal with the real issue of discrimination in mental health in the slightest.
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