Black Churches make Mental Health a Civil Rights Issue
17th August 2006
Black-majority churches have a crucial role in tackling injustice says Matilda MacAttram. The central role Black churches have played in the civil rights movement both here and in the United State has many believe been critical in combating many of the abuses of ethnic minorities rights. Nowhere are the human and civil right of Black people more flagrantly abused than within psychiatric services.
Community leaders representing thousands of Black Majority Churches (BMCs) across the UK have thrown their support behind a campaign for justice for people in the community subject to mental health laws. Through a new webstie Black Mental Health UK, which will be launched next week the community will be able to lobby MPs over current changes to mental health law.
The African Caribbean Evangelical Alliance, The Council of Black Led Churches and Christians together in Brent are among the supporters calling to make the treatment of African Caribbean’s in psychiatric care central to any changes in the 1983 Mental Health Act.
