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Good Morning Yesterday鈥檚 interview on this programme with a young woman who had threatened suicide and who was then locked up in a police station for 72 hours was troubling to say the least. 聽 I thought, probably like many of you, that locking up people suffering from serious mental health issues in a police cell belonged to a bygone Dickensian age. But the news is worse. The charity MIND has also showed this week how thousands of mental health patients are still being physically restrained and suggested that perhaps not all cases were necessary. National guidelines and better training might help reduce the numbers鈥 particularly those restrained in the dangerous 鈥渇ace down鈥 position. 聽 In Ruby Wax and Stephen Fry it helps to have two such vocal people who have personal experience of dealing with mental health issues. Ruby Wax is a particular hero of mine. She helps remove the stigma around mental health and urges us 鈥 do not be afraid of this ! The question then, of course, is how we, as a community, respond. 聽 Stephen Fry has repeated this mantra many times: dealing with mental health is about understanding. It鈥檚 something he keeps on repeating 鈥 understanding, understanding, understanding 聽- what 1 in 4 adults and children experience in their lives. And then there鈥檚 also understanding the consequences for the loved ones of those affected. 聽 In order to find a route to healing where mental health is concerned the 18th century writer Emanuel Swedenborg saw theology as a rational discipline and psychology as a behavioural science and believed that they complement one another...
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