Calls for Tory parliament candidate Fernando to step down after saying mentally ill could 'wear wristbands'

Veya wrote:REMOVED FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

PLEASE DO NOT USE
http://www.independent.co.uk

Ben here, found an alternative source for this story. Also rewrote the headline a bit.

The Tory parliamentary candidate for Cambridge, Chamali Fernando sparked outrage and horror after saying mental health patients should wear wristbands to identify their conditions. Fernando was speaking at a hustings event hosted by the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public when she made the comment.

Andy Burnham, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: “There has been an enormous amount of work in Parliament to challenge the stigma surrounding mental health. But comments like this are so disappointing – they set us back and remind us how far we have to go. Jeremy Hunt must disown these comments, instruct his candidate to apologise and make it clear that they form no part of Conservative Party policy.”

“This proposal shows the candidate’s harmful views on mental health,” Disability and Mental Health Adviser at University of the Arts, London Annabel Crowley said.

https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/what-will-the-tories-suggest-next-compassionate-eugenics/

Now that is totally out of order.

However there IS a point here.....

perhaps a card as the chap mentioned might be sensible in certain cases
or even a "dog tag" thing

certainly there is a problem with police NOT correctly assesing (or not caring) about the possibility that someone may have mental health issues...strewth the cops cant even tell the difference between a drunk and someone in diabetic distress TWICE I have had to intervene in such cases....

I have no problem with a dog tag, many people have them for medical condition in case they are in an accident etc. and are not unusual and wouldn't cause a stigma.

Wait...if they have mental problems, aren't they likely to lose the wristband? They should stick with tattoos, donja think?

Great idea

but let me think  
I have heard of something similar before

now where was that


Oh!!! thats right

You're right. It would confuse things.

True
I think mentally challenged people should wear bands on there wrists .

And the words "Chamali Fernando`s a Arsehole " should be printed on them ...in florescent green

Don't they exist already for Diabetics and Allergic people ???

They do here, they are optional, you can probably get them for other things

I have a friend that always has his epileptic one on that way people know he is having a seizer and should call and ambulance as opposed to think he is pass out drunk.

http://australia.universalmedicalid.com/

veya_victaous wrote:Don't they exist already for Diabetics and Allergic people ???

They do here, they are optional, you can probably get them for other things

I have a friend that always has his epileptic one on that way people know he is having a seizer and should call and ambulance as opposed to think he is pass out drunk.

http://australia.universalmedicalid.com/

they are medical alert bracelets not really the same as labelling people with mental issues

How is this wrong?
The only argument against this is if people would use this to be prejudice. Is not the problem then in regards to educating prejudice people?
The point of this is born from good intentions to help identify a condition, not one as a green light for people to be prejudice, and in fact what then is the case is people are then pandering to those who are prejudiced not thus dealing with the problem
Take the example of the driver who had a condition and was tasered by the Police because the Police officer thought he was drunk?
Could such an indentification have have prevented the officer from what followed?
Does anyone remember the story?

The whole point of this is to give a better understanding for all, and I fail to see what is wrong with that, where it could in fact help save lives.
People are wrongly looking at this as some view as if idenitification is making them as somehow inferior, when the reason is to help, not be prejudice.

Victor says to use a card, but again, who would look for such a card mate.
An idenifictaion is something that stands out and thus can be used to quickly idenitfy what a person suffers from, which again could help save their lives as we already see with people with diabities.
It should be voluntary, but something that is promoted as in the best interest to wear.

@KD
purpose of either is so Cops help you instead of fuck you

@Bras
Agree there would be obvious issues if it was mandatory but as a voluntary scheme it is fine.

Brasidas wrote:Is not the problem then in regards to educating prejudice people?

If they want to be educated.  Most people are intractable, particularly when it comes to political views.  According to CNN, mental illness and prisons are practically synonymous.  That means it is political over here (and I doubt it is any different there). according the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law:

American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. wrote:The United States has the highest rate of adult incarceration among the developed countries, with 2.2 million currently in jails and prisons. Those with mental disorders have been increasingly incarcerated during the past three decades, probably as a result of the deinstitutionalization of the state mental health system. Correctional institutions have become the de facto state hospitals, and there are more seriously and persistently mentally ill in prisons than in all state hospitals in the United States.

When an issue becomes politicized, it becomes entrenched in the minds of subscribers.  Education may be a wasted effort.  In such a case it is more powerful to hammer away along political channels, using the media and public hearings to bring out the reality. Lawsuits don't hurt, either.

In the meantime, some sort of more obvious identification (that a mere card) is necessary.  Hence...

Original Quill wrote:

Brasidas wrote:Is not the problem then in regards to educating prejudice people?

If they want to be educated.  Most people are intractable, particularly when it comes to political views.  According to CNN, mental illness and prisons are practically synonymous.  That means it is political over here (and I doubt it is any different there). according the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law:

American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. wrote:The United States has the highest rate of adult incarceration among the developed countries, with 2.2 million currently in jails and prisons. Those with mental disorders have been increasingly incarcerated during the past three decades, probably as a result of the deinstitutionalization of the state mental health system. Correctional institutions have become the de facto state hospitals, and there are more seriously and persistently mentally ill in prisons than in all state hospitals in the United States.

When an issue becomes politicized, it becomes entrenched in the minds of subscribers.  Education may be a wasted effort.  In such a case it is more powerful to hammer away along political channels, using the media and public hearings to bring out the reality.  Lawsuits don't hurt, either.

In the meantime, some sort of more obvious identification (that a mere card) is necessary.  Hence...

Education is one of the biggest keys to turning around such prejudices, as many prejudices are born from pure and simple ignorance and a complete lack of understanding. This can be found countless times in history where you find the prejudice like for example against the Jews in Nazi Germany was fabricated.
There is a massive disparity in levels of income in the US which has far more to play on crime itself which is getting away from the point at hand.

I think the difference between us is semantical. My examples are included by your wider idea of education.

So I agree.

Original Quill wrote:I think the difference between us is semantical.  My examples are included by your wider idea of education.

So I agree.

Okey dokey Quill


Talking of education, how about this young lady?
Quite impressive do you not think?

College acceptance letters have officially rolled in, and yet another teen has been accepted to all eight Ivy League institutions.
Munira Khalif is an 18-year-old high school senior at Mounds Park Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota. In addition to her high grades and ACT score, Khalif has quite an impressive list of extracurriculars. She's a state speech champion, founder and leader of the school's Social Consciousness Club, and founded her own nonprofit called Lighting The Way, school officials said.
Still, Khalif was shocked when she was accepted to Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale. According to a press release from her school, she was also accepted to Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Minnesota.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/14/teen-ivy-league-schools_n_7064890.html?utm_hp_ref=good-news&ir=Good%20News

I am always pleased to see academic success.  But if we use the IVY League-8 as our yardstick, we might remind ourselves that these 8 schools are members in an athletic league, no more.  The Ivy-League means they play together in baseball, football and basketball, etc., not that they are equally superior.  The only other thing they have in common is that they are all expensive, private universities.

The three best universities in the US are Berkeley, Harvard and Stanford.  Two of those are not Ivy-League, so the elite-8 of the Ivy-League are not elite because of academics. But, they are all prohibitively expensive.

Don't get me wrong...they are all excellent schools.  I have a stake in that.  My own father went to medical school and taught medicine at Harvard University.  My oldest daughter received her Bachelor degree with honors, plus her MBA and her JD (law degree) also from Harvard.  My brother received his Bachelor degree from Dartmouth.

If we expand the best to five schools, we go from Berkeley, Harvard and Stanford, to Princeton and perhaps the University of Michigan.  Yale University is generally in the mix, but I think Princeton and UM are superior.  Also, special mention to University of Pennsylvania, also an Ivy-League school, because its Wharton School of Economics is probably the best school of economics in the world, and certainly the best MBA you can acquire.

University of Minnesota is no slouch, either.

Thanks Quill for your views, as it is good to hear an opinion on what the schools are like, which she clearly is a very bright young lady.