When medical colleagues gathered for the Elysium Annual Medical Conference later last month, they heard from Professor Piyal Sen, Medical Director at Chadwick Lodge, on the fascinating subject of Psychiatry and Human Rights.
In his presentation Professor Sen, who is also Chair of the Human Rights Special Committee at the Royal College Psychiatrists, delved further into the subject and focused on the science, the politics and the humanity aspects of human rights and the potential impact each of these has on those practising psychiatry in the UK.
During his presentation Professor Sen also gave an overview of the work of the Special Committee of Human Rights
Professor Sen said: “Human rights is one of those subjects that we perhaps all think we know about and what it means, but actually we probably don’t understand as well as we think we do! During my presentation I hoped to get colleagues thinking about all different aspects of human rights and how they apply to us as medical professionals often working with people who are detained in hospital settings.
“In my presentation I explored the journey psychiatry has been on since the 1950s and the challenges we face in supporting patients and protecting their human rights with limited resources. Limited resources to work with is a human rights challenge. We examined detention, marginalisation, how lack of funding can mean people are denied access to services. All of these affect people’s human rights.
“And human rights in the mental health context is a matter of global concern. The World Health Organisation recently created a Mental Health Action Plan, and human rights in this context is specifically featured. The BMA too has examined how different areas of health are impacted by human rights challenges.
“The WHO and United Nations have published a document, Mental Health, Rights and Legislation – and some areas of that document are problematic for those working in secure or forensic service. We explored this in my presentation also.
“As a Committee, as I shared with my Elysium colleagues, we want to be very proactive and have identified some very key areas of Human Rights that we want to work on in the next year.
“What I hoped to explore and share with colleagues was that for us as psychiatrists, there is a lot more to human rights than just humans and their rights. We have to consider competing principles. ”