when the reports on the most The quotation above comes not from a report on Belsen but from the committee of inquiry set up to investigate conditions at the Normanstield hospital for the mentally handicapped, Teddington, Middlesex. THE STRIKE that began the inquiry. May 1976 throw you in a mental hospital.
hospital.
Michael Young has never been violent towards anyone, though he has stolen property from a lot of people. system can't cope with people like Michael nev ined approvee school borstal and prison. However these places never made him any richer. So last time — when Michael stole a TV set - the court got a couple of doctors to say he was psychotic'.
By 'psychotic' they meant (to use the words of one doctor) that he had an irresponsible attitude towards property. This allowed them to shut him up in Moss Side Hospital under Section 65 of the Mental Health ACE INDEFINITE Under Section 65 Michael Young was sent away for an indefinite sentence, could mean for life. The only person who can release him is the Home Secretary - even the so-called Mental Review Tribunal can only make 'ON ONE occasion Dr Lawlor tried to subject three adult, but mentally immature and child-like patients, to a rigid and unpleasant diet consisting of a tepid, porridge-like substance and nothing else for a month.
'When he came to the conclusion that they might be receiving secret gifts of sweets from others, he ordered them to be locked up together in a room to prevent further breaches of the regime he had ordered who worked on the Confederation of Health Service Employees journal Normansfield Hospital inquiry extensive investigation carried out into the running of a psychiatric hospital.
One of the recommendations of 700-page published last week, is that Dr Terence Lawlor - a consultant psychiatrist again be employed in the NHS.
The committee of inquiry, DEMAN IF YOU live in the USSR and are a dissident then the way the authorities deal with you is call you 'mad' and If you live in Britain, are working class and steal to survive then the way 'our' authorities may deal with you is also to call you 'mad' and throw you in mental This is exactly what happened to Michael Young, write GREG DRAPKIN and STEVE COHEN.
recommendations to the Home Secretary.
Michael's now been inside This for nearly six years. The people who put him inside judges and the doctors — ain't gonna want him outside. The only way we are going to get him out is by a campaien lo force his release.
Lance dealing housing строутелі of has offered Michael a hostel place scheme if he is released.
Michael Young is one of an unknown number of persons unknown who are in a similar situation. By taking Michael's case we would be helping him, but also everyone else imprisoned under this Act.
The campaign address is the Grass ROOLS Books, which Oxford Road, Manchester. If you would like information or would like to help in any way or know of Health similar cases, then contact us which spent evidence and cost £350,000, catalogues camp-like conditions at the hospital, which it compares with a workhouse.
The standards of hygiene often appalling...Faeces and urine were frequently left unattended for end...The upper floor building began, evacuated because rain water poured in...
CYCl COSMETICS report, Health - minister Ennals has responded with the predictable cosmetics. He has should never ordered area health authorities to investigate conditions in all hospitals for the have 49,000 patients.
We can expect virtually no change. nospitals Normansfield, there have been over the past few years at least half a dozen inquiries into individual "mental institutions which have revealed conditions just as horrific.
REMEDIAL
Neither these inquiries, the minor remedial action that has resulted from them, have achieved anything to alter the fact that those who are born with a serious mental handicap Words by Red Flu • organisation and woodworkIng up JUIC please •a year taking concentration days on often had to bo David mentally which in total While few psychiatric al t society in bestowed by the associated with to be criticised inquiry.
Music by Bob Dylan (Jack of Hearts')
Michael Young was 21, a hardened criminal was he He stole a television set, and also some other property So when the screws had heard the news they said it's plain to see We've got to lock this man away to save society And in Moss Side on a 65 they shut the door and threw away the key. Four years later the appeal tribunal finally heard the case They reconsidered all the things they never dared to tell him to his face He stabbed his sisters and his mum, three shrinks have sworn it's so His mum and sis say it's a lie but how are they to know? We'll keep the lid tight on the bin he's got another couple years to go Another year had come and gone then Michael's mum got busy on the phone She rang the local Law Centre and told them that she wanted Michael home The lawyer started working, his brain was moving fast Looking for some answers, ways out of this morass He found some facts and witnesses that's how the next tribunal came to pass O'Shea the red psychiatrist from Birmingham drove up to testify And Lance and Michael's family from Manchester dressed in their suits and ties Then through the door peered Michael's shrink, Noble was his name He knew that all the people there had seen right through his game So the tribunal got rained off, giving Noble time to leave the town At the replay his replacement started speaking spreading out the facts He said that someone else had said that Michael might have killed cats with an axe And when the poor steal from the rich, then Michael says it's fine He knows the rich steal from the poor, they do it all the time Oh a psychopathic attitude to property, it's a classic sign. Eight months later, this man is still inside the bin The Home Office ain't bothered cause they know that no one's ever heard of him But Michael Young is not alone, I don't mean people care No, thousand more like him and just like us are still in there So all of you good people, and all of those who want to be free Keep your thoughts close to yourself and don't go nicking a colour TV And when they ask you how you know that you are really sane Don't try to say your mental health is somewhere in your brain The way to spot the crazy ones is simpla, they've got them tied in chains Lonely Metropolitan by Herbert Bayer severely mentally incapacitated in later life will no find themselves shut away from ill-treatment the "loonie bins' Victorians Lawlor is not the only person Normansfield any by the latest In Broadmoor, Rampton and Moss Side that's where they throw the ones they want to hide.
itself ved ions.
stands While the committee found evidence cruelty by the nursing staff at the hospital, it attacks the regional and area health authorities for failing to take notice of the staff's complaints about Lawlor, and it criticises two officials of the Confederation of Health Service Employees for exploiand breaking the union's rules.
The latter comments ar aunteremarkable. As the rebori clear. the cone onsa would never have been exposed members the hospital, who successfully called for Lawlor's suspension. SCAPEGOAT The inquiry has sought to scapegoat the union regional and branch secretaries involThey are blamed for stirring up the walk-out and allowing a petition to be circulated among union members al ine nospital The report quotes a COHSE rule which effectively forbids members from initiating petit The leadership of the trion absurd undemocratic rule, and it has responded to the report by agreeing hold own internal inquiry.
There is a certain logic to this move. Apart from the concern of the COHSE bureaucracy to avoid strikes, it has a touching reverence for governmenta inquiries and for the protes sionalism on which the health service is structured.
Its wariness about outside interference' does nothing to break down the isolation of psychiatric hospitals and DauCHEs. whose oppression the physically handicapped described on the facing page - is reinforced by being screened off.
COHE's own reports point to the chronic and understaffing of psychiatric hospitals yet the union gives precious little support to the numcrous local actions by Dr TERENCE LAWLOR, the psychiatrist Normansfield 'intolerant abusive, and tyrannical' its members to confront thi We can be certain that much psychiatric illness will eliminated in a socialist society But it will never disappear for good. Breaking down the walls of mental institutions - in a social if not a literal sense will help the workers movement to come with the problems.
Socialist Challenge 30 Noyember 1978 Page 15
Socialist Challenge