Friday, June 01, 2007

Psychiatrists set to use mental health law to detain terrorist suspects

Political psychiatry, the use of psychiatry for political ends, has taken another step forward with the impulse to use psychiatrist as an excuse to detain people as terrorists. As seen in this blog entry

Psychiatrists are set to increasingly use mental health law to detain terrorists suspects, prompting fears that psychiatry will be directly involved in the abuse of civil rights.

The government has set up a VIP “stalker” squad to identify and detain terrorists and other individuals who pose a threat to prominent people, such as the Prime Minister, the cabinet and the Royal Family.

The unit, staffed by psychiatrists as well as police, could have extra powers to detain suspects using mental health law.

Critics say a mental health bill going through parliament includes a wider definition of mental disorder. They fear it will mean people - including terrorist suspects - may be detained on grounds of their cultural, political or religious beliefs.

The new London-based unit, called the fixated threat assessment centre (FTAC) and set up last year, uses the police to identify suspects.

Liberty, the human rights organisation, said the unit represented a threat to civil liberties.

Its policy director, Gareth Crossman, told newspapers: “This blurs the line between medical decisions and police actions.

"If you are going to allow doctors to take people’s liberty away, they have to be independent. That credibility is undermined when the doctors are part of the same team as the police.”

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “The fixated threat assessment centre is a joint initiative between the Metropolitan Police, Home Office and Department of Health. Its role is to assess, manage and reduce risks and threats from fixated individuals, against people in public life, particularly protected VIPs.”

The Mail on Sunday reported that FTAC's senior forensic psychiatrist is David James. He has made a study of attacks on British and European politicians by people diagnosed with pathological fixations.

Also on the staff is Robert Halsey, a consultant forensic clinical psychologist who specialises in risk assessment.

At least one terror suspect - allegedly linked to the 7/7 bomb plot and a suicide bombing in Israel - has already been held under the Mental Health Act.

The government has always argued its mental health bill is a suitable balance between patient rights and public safety.

But Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told the Mail that classing someone as mentally ill on the grounds of their religious beliefs is "a very worrying scenario"

He said: "The Government is trying to bring in a wider definition of mental disorder and is resisting exclusions which ensure that people cannot be treated as mentally disordered on the grounds of their cultural, political or religious beliefs.

"When you hear they are also setting up something like this police unit, it raises questions about quite what their intentions are.

"The use of mental health powers of detention should be confined to the purposes of treatment. But the Government wants to be able to detain someone who is mentally disordered even when the treatment would have no benefit.

"Combined with the idea that someone could be classed as mentally ill on the grounds of their religious beliefs, it is a very worrying scenario."

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