SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
ROYAL COLLEGE OF PSYCHIATRISTS
REPORT TO COUNCIL
Summary of the year 2011
1.Educational Activities
The committee, since its inception in 2006, has placed considerable emphasis on increasing the understanding of relevant human rights issues among psychiatrists. It has sought to achieve this objective by focussing on educational activities of various forms.
Two on-line CPD modules by members of the committee were published on the College website:
“Human rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 – implications for psychiatrists” authored by Drs Curtice and Symonds;
“FREDA – a human rights based approach to clinical practice” authored by Drs Curtice, Symonds and Exworthy.
The second module reflected a paper by Dr Curtice & Dr Exworthy published in the April 2010 issue of The Psychiatrist. In total, members of the committee were involved in seven publications over the year. These appeared in either Advances in Psychiatric Treatment or The Psychiatrist thus maximising exposure of the membership of the College to human rights related academic material.
In September 2010 the North West Division of the College held a one day conference that used the Woolterton case to explore concepts such as capacity and autonomy in relation to a suicidal patient. The meeting, which attracted almost 100 participants, was organised by committee member, Dr Fareed Bashir. In addition the session highlighting the relevance of human rights to clinical practice was given by Dr Exworthy.
In the coming year two more CPD modules are expected to be published. They have been prepared by Dr Sanjay Khurmi and provide an introduction to mental health law and mental health tribunals. In addition there is a paper exploring the human rights concept of proportionality which is in press with The Psychiatrist. It has been authored by four members of the committee.
Finally the committee’s second national conference is on the early preparation stage. It is provisionally going to take place in October 2011 and will explore and debate the advances and the concerns around the subject of convergence between the mental health and criminal justice systems.
2.Membership of the Committee
At the beginning of the year Dr Curtice took over as Secretary, following Dr Davison’s emigration to Australia.
Dr Zaman stepped down as the PTC representative and that role has now been taken up by Dr Keith Reid, a senior trainee in forensic psychiatry from Newcastle.
At the end of the year Dr Jonathan Bindman resigned from the Committee because of pressure of work in his clinical post.
The committee has also co-opted two senior trainees for specific projects related to the work of the committee. Dr Lucy Bacon will be piloting a questionnaire on the attitudes of psychiatrists towards human rights and mental health and will be mentored by Dr Curtice. Dr Guy Hillman approached the committee with an interest in investigating the human rights aspects of the convergence of mental health and criminal justice, perhaps with an emphasis on indeterminate sentencing. Dr Hillman will be mentored by Dr Exworthy.
Current members
Dr Tim Exworthy (Chair)Dr Martin Curtice (Secretary)
Dr Fareed BashirDr Sanjay Khurmi
Dr Sivanathan ManjubhashiniDr Samuel Stein
Dr Richard SymondsDr Richard Taylor
Co-opted members
Dr Lucy Bacon
Dr Guy Hillman
Mr Greg Smith (Committee manager)
Committee meetings in 2011
16 February; 5 May; 22 June; 8 September; 7 December.
Dr Tim Exworthy
Chair, Special Committee on Human Rights
15 February 2011.