Tell us your story

The Mental Health Act sets out when people with a mental health problem can be detained and treated in hospital against their will. It was written in 1983 and needs updating. An independent review of the Act has just been published alongside a set of recommended changes including:

Recommendations to strengthen people’s rights, empower them to question decisions about their care, choose their treatment and involve friends and family.
The right for everyone on a mental health ward to have access to an independent advocate.
Recommendations on how we can address racial inequality in mental health services and start to provide more culturally-relevant care for everyone.

We know that these changes have the potential to make a huge difference to the way people in mental health crisis are treated in hospital but we need your stories to help us demonstrate the importance of change.

How to get involved

If you have been detained under the Mental Health Act and want to be part of our campaign by sharing your experiences, good or bad please email: [email protected]

We are particularly interested in hearing from young black men aged 18-30 who have been detained under the Mental Health Act.

Find out more about our work around the Mental Health Act Review here.

How your story could help

We would be interested in hearing about your experiences of the Mental Health Act and your time in hospital, and what you think about the proposed changes to the Mental Health Act. Your experiences can be positive or negative, or a mixture. There are a variety of different ways you can share your story with us, so you can pick what feels right for you.

For example:

A blog which you write and gets published on our website
If you feel comfortable doing media work, we can look at you sharing your story with journalists which may get published, or on the radio or TV. (Please note we cannot guarantee coverage)
Share your story either anonymously or with your name. You may have the opportunity to be featured in an animation, a briefing for MPs, as a case study for our website or other communication materials.

Your story will help us to emphasise how important high quality crisis is, and the difference it can make to somebody's recovery. There will be opportunities to share your story on social media channels and with a variety of influential figures.