SAVE AMARDEEP CAMPAIGN

 

By Amita Patel

 

 

In the Winter 2007 edition of the Lambeth Mind News we brought to your notice how insidiously Lambeth mental health services have been getting away with closing Amardeep, a South Asian mental health project. The weekly Tuesday drop-in at the Effra Day Centre for Amardeep service users only was stopped in June 2007, and Lambeth services are well on their way to disbanding the Amardeep staff team altogether.

 

The whole situation has increased the stress levels of Amardeep users and there is an increase in incidents of mental ill health which Lambeth services need to address. Cuts in funding have resulted in divide and rule tactics with the result that Amardeep service users are not coming forward with all their concerns as there is a real fear of hostility from some staff and other service users.

 

South London & Maudsley (NHS) Trust Lambeth seems to feel that a consultation process did take place with Amardeep service users as part of its Integration Policy. However, this is not the experience of Amardeep users. They feel they were informed of changes rather than consulted, e.g:

 

“No one asked us whether we wanted Amardeep project to continue. We were told that the project was going to be closed.”

 

“I get so angry because I got told by Effra staff that Amardeep is not my concern and  ‘I’m doing you a favour ’.”

(Some quotes from Amardeep Users.)

 

It is clear from all this that Lambeth mental health services are not meeting their statutory obligations under the Health & Social Care Act 2001, in particular the section on Public Involvement and Consultation. This states that it is the duty of every statutory body to make arrangements to consult service users in:

 

“a) the planning of the provision of those services,

  b) the development and consideration of proposals for changes in the way those services are provided, and c) decisions to be made by that body affecting the operation of those services.”

 

‘Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care,  an action plan for reform inside and outside services’ (Department of Health.  Publication date: 11 January 2005) also states that BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) communities need to be consulted about their specific needs and be actively involved with service providers in providing a culturally responsive and sensitive service.

 

These statutory obligations have not been met and what we do have is institutional racism. Institutional racism was defined in the Machpherson Report of the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence February 1999 as:

 

“The collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amounts to discrimination through unwitting prejudice ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.”

 

This situation was pointed out to Patrick Gillespie, the Borough Director of Lambeth Mental Health Services, in an open letter to him from Renuka Bhakta, User Development Worker from Southwark Mind, as published in the Winter 2007 Lambeth Mind News.

 

Patrick Gillespie responded, and four of us from Southwark Mind and Lambeth Mind met with him. Due to last minute changes, on Patrick Gillespie’s part, in the time of our meeting, Amardeep users were unable to attend. However we pointed out to Patrick Gillespie that the situation as it stands with Amardeep users is that they are under a great deal of stress and stigma. There is fear of being pointed out and indeed victimised.

 

Amardeep users are being told by some Lambeth mental health services employees and some service users that integration means that all service users have access to the same services in the same way all the time. This, I believe, is not the true meaning of integration. It is assimilation. Integration recognises and celebrates differences such as the need for women’s groups,  separate groups for people with different disabilities, or for the elderly.

 

Integration is achieved when every member of society has an equal opportunity to access jobs and services without risk of discrimination. Where each individual can engage in the decisions that directly affect them, and help to shape policies and services, and where interaction between different ethnic groups means positive contact with one and another, building bridges across communities to develop mutual understanding.

 

Integration puts the onus on all of us to respect the differences in our needs, and it is up to service providers to meet these needs appropriately and sensitively in consultation with service users. 

 

Patrick Gillespie did not seem to know that since the closure of the Amardeep drop-in in June 2007 only 3-4 Amardeep Service Users have been attending the Effra Centre. Before the closure 15-30 people used to attend each week. Patrick Gillespie said he would look into the situation. He also offered to meet up with Amardeep service users - perhaps in a half day event.

 

At the time of writing, Patrick Gillespie’s proposals have been taken back to the Amardeep service users and we are in the process of organising a gathering.

 

Overleaf is a copy of an article published in the Streatham Guardian showing a photo of some of those who demonstrated outside the Effra Day Centre against the closure of Amardeep. (N.B. The campaigner in the middle is Arif Khan not ‘Jagvish’.

 

Long Live People Power!