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Take action on mental health
Join Amnesty's mental health campaign and demand action from the Government.
Amnesty Ireland have recently begun a campaign to try to improve mental health services in Ireland. This campaign will continue until June 2011. It will focus on human rights and mental health and will try to press the government to take action on mental health issues. The main issues focused on will be people’s rights to health, to active community involvement and to the right to choose from a variety of treatment options.
Amnesty Ireland believes governments must pay as much attention to people’s mental health as they do to their physical health. Therefore, this campaign aims to lobby the government and get them to work on mental health policies, legislation and the level of mental health care in Ireland. A large part of this is based on organising people to get up and campaign against the lack of adequate mental health services in Ireland. Amnesty believes in the power of people, and, to that end, wants to mobilise people to get together and fight for their human rights.
Amnesty Ireland is currently doing a tremendous amount of work on mental health. It recently staged an event at the Abbey Theatre in June and it has also set up a lobbying group. The lobbying group is made up of carers, service users and mental health professionals. The lobby group writes letters to TDs, gives talks and makes phone calls to invested parties. For lobbying action visit www.amnesty.ie.
Amnesty is a part of the The Irish Mental Health Coalition (IMHC). This coalition consists of Amnesty International, Bodywhys – The Eating Disorders Association of Ireland, GROW in Ireland, the Irish Advocacy Network and Shine. The Coalition seeks to improve the lives of people with mental health difficulties by advocating for people’s rights to the highest attainable standard of mental health.
For further information on mental health and human rights go to:
www.amnesty.ie/mentalhealth
More information here on SpunOut.ie:
www.spunout.ie/action/Make-a-difference/Help-tackle-mental-health-stigma
www.spunout.ie/mag/Voice-it/The-reality-of-mental-health-for-young-people-in-Ireland
www.spunout.ie/health/Healthy-mind
