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Mental Health Bill [HL]

I heartily endorse what previous speakers have said. I am sorry that I have intervened so late in the debates on this Bill, but circumstances have precluded me from taking part previously. I was recently asked to intervene in the case of a lady who had been labelled by her local social services department as having Munchausen syndrome by proxy. She expressed severe concern about the safety and welfare of her children against threats that were later proven to be correct. But the social services department decided that she was paranoid and a danger to herself and other people. She was sectioned under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. When that diagnosis was challenged, the psychiatrist, a locum at the Central Middlesex Hospital, changed the diagnosis to schizophrenia. I had known the lady for some time and—although I am not medically qualified, but have contact with psychiatrists through my other activities—was fortunate enough to find a psychiatrist who was prepared to examine this lady on a pro bono basis. He travelled all the way up from the west of England and found that there was nothing wrong with her, apart from the fact that she could perhaps be described as an overanxious mother. This lady was threatened with being forcibly medicated, the strong-arm boys were actually brought in and a court order had to be obtained to prevent that forcible medication. The situation was so Kafkaesque that one could not believe that it was happening in this day and age. But it did happen and, thank goodness, when the case came before the mental health tribunal, the woman was discharged with no labels attached to her name. That was fortunate but she might not have had that benefit if someone who cared about her had not intervened. It is very important that suitably qualified people sit on those tribunals.