Gateway Chronicle 2021

63
for people they didn’t know what else to do with’,
‘and medication that was usually used on psychiatric
patients was being used as a punishment.’ Yet, the
inquiry closed in October 2020 due to ‘insufficient
evidence’. Are those who experience mental health
treatment still being disregarded and treated with
suspicion?
Criminalisation of those with mental health issues
has remained a problem, with the misunderstanding
of those struggling and the failure to intervene to
adequately support them leading to 25% of female
inmates and 15% of male inmates reporting symptoms
of psychosis (compared to a rate among the
public of 4%) and on top of this 40% of prisons
inspected in 2016-17 had inadequate or no training
for prison officers to intervene. Criminalisation of
mental illness has also entered our language, desensitising
the public to the issues faced by those who
seek support and instead face institutionalisation:
the term of ‘committing suicide’ is still often used,
despite the Suicide Act of 1961 decriminalising
suicide (although it is staggering of itself that one
could be punished under the law for attempting suicide
up until 60 years ago). As of the 1950 European
Convention on Human Rights, a ‘person of unsound
mind’ could be deprived of liberty by judicial
process; psychiatric inpatients are also half as likely
to register to vote, and half as likely, if registered,
to vote. The lack of support throughout history of
people with mental health issues has led to a system
today which is underfunded and a society, especially
in Britain, that values ‘keep calm and carry on’
above all else – until someone is deemed a danger,
where they are therefore removed from society. We
have failed to learn the lessons of history of how to
support those struggling, due to this history being
hidden.
Hill End hospital closed in November 1995 after
the introduction of Care in the Community in the
1980s. Nearly all buildings were demolished, and a
housing development now lies there with Highfield
Park Trust managing most of the land of Hill End
and Cell Barnes, another hospital. A few signs and a
‘history trail’ are most of what remains to connect
the site currently to its dark and tragic past. If no
physical evidence remains, we must work together
to keep this part of history alive and to remember
the mistakes that have been made and continue to
be made with the treatment of people with mental
health issues. Throughout history, we have tried
to hide away those whom we do not know how to
Hidden Voices
treat or cannot understand but isolation, apathy and
disbelief do not help anyone - they contribute to the
stigma surrounding mental health and the shame
people experience. So, reach out to your friends and
family and push for the acceptance and support from
healthcare every person deserves.
Agnes Tyley L6NPW