Over fifty leaders in mental health and advocacy are calling on the government to ​“make an unequivocal commitment to improving access to Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHAs) as part of the reform of the Mental Health Act” in a joint letter to Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid. 22 September 2021 BIHR has today joined with VoiceAbility, and over 50 other signatories including the chief executives of Mind, Rethink, the National Autistic Society, the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network, and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, writing to the Health and Social Care Secretary about our concerns around access to independent advocacy in reforming mental health law. The independent review of the Mental Health Act in 2018 reccomended access to advocacy, but following the White Paper, there is mounting concern that this may be scaled back because of funding constraints and that government commitments to …

This post was originally published on British Institute of Human Rights News .