Social and Legal Justice for People Given a Mental Health Diagnosis? A Real Possibility, or an Impossible Dream?

Abstract

This article represents reflections on current social and legal issues for people given a mental diagnosis, from a lived experience perspective. The article addresses: Major obstacles to social and legal justice for people with this lived experience. What differences people with lived experience have been able to make. Key challenges for the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) from a lived experience perspective. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is used as a basis for the reflections. The article has a particular emphasis on literature written, or substantially influenced by disabled people, including people with lived experience of receiving a mental health diagnosis. The user-led group Liberation is utilised as an example of what difference people with lived experience can make to obstacles which they experience. Three challenges are made to BASW, related to utilising the Convention to ensure social and legal justice for us, confronting human rights breaches in the draft Mental Health Bill and working in partnership with user-led groups in these spheres.