Mental Health in Black Britain

A NEW DIGITAL MAGAZINE WANTS TO CHANGE THE DEBATE

By the Newsdesk
Tuesday, October 11, 2011.
A new digital magazine is set to become a powerful voice for mental healthcare in Black Britain.
The Solution launched by the campaigns group Black Mental Health UK, aims to mainstreams one of the most marginalised areas of healthcare.
Black Britons are 50% per cent more likely to enter the mental healthcare system through the court or the police. They are also 44% more likely to be sectioned, 29% more likely to be forcibly restrained, 50% more likely to be placed in seclusion and make up 30% of in patients on medium secure psychiatric wards despite having similar rates of mental illness as British white people. Government figures also show that in the past five years, forced detention and medication of people under the Mental Health Act has doubled for the UK’s African Caribbean communities.
This new publication says it wants to provide our community with easy to read updates, news and analysis on this issue, which are rarely publicly discussed outside of medical circles. The three main political parties have also endorsed the online publication.
The publishers suggest that The Solution will also be a vital resource for professionals working in the healthcare sector and it will provide insights and regular updates on the issues that are of critical concern to Black Britain.
Reggae Reggae Sauce founder Levi Roots, has added his support to The Solution magazine, by highlighting the importance of diet in relation to mental health and wellbeing. Every month he will be sharing with readers healthy cooking tips with a Caribbean twist.
Steve Pope, the editor of The Voice, will also be contributing a column on mental health – an issue that the Department of Health’s recent study suggests touch the lives of one in six people living in the UK.
The cover story of this inaugural issue features an exclusive interview with the UK’s first black Coroner, Chinyere Inyama who provides a first-hand account of what it took this mental health lawyer and campaigner to attain her current position in public life. Ms Inyama also gives an insight into what hard work and determination can achieve.
Archdeacon Daniel Kajumba the present Anglican Archdeacon of Reigate, Surrey, speaks out on what the Church can do to address the mental health crisis in Britain’s black communities and consultant psychiatrist Dr Dele Oladije looks at the way forward in the post-delivering Race Equality era of mental health care.
Black Mental Health UK is a human rights campaigns group established to address the over representation of African Caribbean’s within secure psychiatric care and raise awareness to address the stigma associated with mental health.
Matilda MacAttram editor in chief of The Solution Magazine said; ‘From government policy to grass roots activism, BMH UK’s The Solution magazine covers it all. Our news, services users insights, poetry and updates legislative changes are set to reach a million new readers with the backing of BMH UK’s supporters.’
‘There isn’t anything out there right now that focuses’ solely at the issue of mental health from the view of this community. With so many black people in the system there is a need for easy to access information, just so they understand what is going on in this sector.
We not only want to plug a gap, The Solution magazine is also about helping to fulfil a need. People need to know how the Government’s legal aid reforms and changes in the Freedom of Protection Bill will affect them, and they can find it all here in this magazine,’