Petition for wrongful detention

Despite so many of us signing this and NAS hand delivering the petition to Downing Street the government has ignored it 

Extract from the NAS email last week:

"Yesterday (7 November), the Government dropped its promised Mental Health Bill. We really hoped that Tuesday’s King’s Speech would be used as an opportunity to finally bring the crucial measures in the Bill before Parliament. But despite a massive 18,234 of you signing our open letter to Rishi Sunak demanding the outdated Mental Health Act is urgently reformed, we’ve been let down, again."

How do we change this? Is it possible to ask them why they didn't do it? Is it a matter of awareness? Is it a matter of cost? What actually needs to be done to make change happen? It is all well and good saying this needs to change but if they are just going to ignore you then it doesn't really matter. So we need to figure out a way to make change happen. What can be done differently? Who do you need to talk to? Who actually has the power to make decisions and how do we get them to make those decisions?

Also, why does change happen? If you can figure out why some changes happen you can figure out where you went wrong and then improve it.

The NAS email goes on to say:

"We can’t afford to give up now and we are going to need your help to make sure this human rights scandal is not forgotten.
We need some time to think about our next move, but we’ll be back in touch to ask for your help as soon as we’ve come up with a plan."

You could always try lobbying your local MP about it. If you can figure out how to get the government to take notice and make change happen put that on your CV and you will be flooded with job offers!

So awareness is a major problem. I wasn't even aware this was going on, I wasn't even aware of autism awareness week. I wasn't even aware I could be autistic until fairly recently, which is like a massive red flag. Lonely, but performs well. I have always found it ironic that those most in need of help are those that find it the hardest to ask for help. I'm not sure if ironic is quite the right word, but I think it gets my point across. So some more questions, I am not really being very helpful but I am curious and can think of lots of questions which must be useful in someway I just haven't figured it out yet. Are there places where autistic people hang out that isn't necessarily autistic focused. If you can raise awareness in those areas that might improve it. I read somewhere there are like 8 points of separation between any two people through social media, I imagine people are parts of lots of different groups, so if you provide them with a script of what they need to say to raise awareness and how they can help, that will probably make it a lot easier. I imagine there is also a lot of stigma attached to autism, either you are a lonely genius or are seen as barely human. I don't think that is the right way to put it and that might be slightly rude sorry.  I imagine alot of people are afraid to speak up because they are afraid of retribution or punishment. I imagine when most people think of autism in the general population, they immediately think of vaccines even if they don't think vacciness cause autism there is still the association there and that is distracting people from the real problem. Is there a way to change the narrative? Is it possible to associate autism in a more positive light? I don't know.

Yes I understand why you have quoted that.

Yes undoubtedly the actual number is far higher than official statistics suggest. I just used 700,000 because that's what it says on the NAS website here:

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism

"More than one in 100 people are on the autism spectrum and there are around 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK. "

Autonomistic said:

It is disappointing that the number of signatures on that petition wasn't higher, when you consider the number of autistic people in the UK is something like 700,000.

Hi Autonomistic

There is definitely more of us than 700,000. It’s just a lot of us are not yet identified as autistic. According to this article below between ‘1 in 59 and 1 in 30 people are Autistic’. So cool!

https://ausometraining.com/neurodiversity-training/

I am pretty sure my MP is useless. I don't think that is the right way to go about changing things. MPs don't really care about improving the country they only care about being in power and staying in power even if nothing gets done.

Therein lies the problem. Releasing autistic people from wrongful detention in hospitals is not exactly seen as a vote winner for the general population. Given a looming election the current government probably just want to defer the problem for the next one to deal with.

How does the government even work? Who is the one making the decisions for mental health services?

The government are the only ones who can change the current Mental Health Act 1983, last updated in 2007. There was a white paper proposing reform published in 2021. It falls under the remit of the Department of Health and Social Care.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-mental-health-act

Can we give them examples? Give them real life stories? Show them what is happening? Instead of it just being a number can we make it real to them? Is it possible to put it on the news? How do you even go about doing that? Do people even care?

The petition was hand delivered to Downing Street by someone who had been detained for four years. Many articles have appeared in the news over the years, particularly in relation to the abuse cases such as Winterbourne and Whorlton.

This recent news article on the main NAS site refers to a recent real life story featured in the Independent. 

https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/why-the-mental-health-act-needs-to-be-reformed

There has also been TV programmes such as Dispatches and Panorama covering some stories:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ckxr

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/locked-away-our-autism-scandal-dispatches

Are there ways to donate? Help? Raise Awareness that people can get involved in. So it's not just a matter of oh that shouldn't be happening lets move on to the next thing. Shouldn't a government be accountable to its people? How do we hold them accountable for their actions? I want to make a difference, I just don't know how. I think that might be a good use of my time. It is a problem that needs solving.

Your enthusiasm is commendable. This is essentially what NAS campaigns for and they are always looking to raise funds and for volunteers. On their main website there is a section on how you can help.

The entire autistic community can help by raising awareness of the issues as much as we can. However one problem is that autistic people tend to lead quite insular lives and don't usually have huge networks or social media followings. It is disappointing that the number of signatures on that petition wasn't higher, when you consider the number of autistic people in the UK is something like 700,000.

Many MPs are like Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore, who " ... always voted at my party's call, and never thought of thinking for myself at all  ... "

Many MPs are like Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore, who " ... always voted at my party's call, and never thought of thinking for myself at all  ... "