More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2014 (28 August to 7 September)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)
9 October
The British* Patient
Inspired by rewatching The English Patient (1997) earlier in the week, here is a quiz for World Mental Health Day (#WMHD2014 on 10 October) about patients’ rights...
Which of the following are rights of a patient in a psychiatric unit (in England & Wales*) when detained under section 2 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended), headed ‘admission for assessment’ ? :
1. To be placed in a unit within 25 miles of home
2. To see a psychiatrist within 3 hours if distressed
3. Not to take medication, if offered twice already and refused
4. To take a walk in the ground for up to an hour, if the staff are told first
5. To have family or friends visit outside visiting hours in the first two weeks of the admission
6. To drive, as long as one’s partner is present
7. To go home on overnight leave at least once per week
8. To vote in local and national elections
9. To choose to be treated, on the NHS, by another psychiatrist who is employed by the same Trust
10. To specify that would never, whatever the consequence, wish to have ECT
11. To see a mental health advocate about any matter of concern
12. To spend at least two hours per week, in total, in conversation with one’s primary nurse
Answers, as at 11 October, are here...
End-notes
* Scotland has its own Mental Health Act, so this is only applicable to the law of England & Wales.
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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
Showing posts with label England & Wales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label England & Wales. Show all posts
Thursday 9 October 2014
Tuesday 4 June 2013
The girl on the train
More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2012
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)easily
2 June
England & Wales is a separate legal jurisdiction from Scotland, with its own laws, courts, Acts of Parliament.
It used to be said, in the early 1990s, that it was a principle of the law of England & Wales that, if one saw a child drowning in a puddle of water (i.e. one could intervene and save him or her without hurting oneself), one was under no obligation to prevent it happening.
I have no idea whether that is still so, and, of course, the law assumed the legal fiction of a stranger, whereas a parent would owe different duties. Curious that Lord Denning was at pains to point out the Biblical origins of the law, but this inhumane example showed otherwise, a callous version of the travellers who went by on the other side of the road in the parable of the so-called good Samaritan (the whole point of the parable was to answer the question Who is my neighbour ?, duties to whom some were seeking to avoid).
At any rate, a child standing and playing on the lap of a woman (who turned out to be her grandmother) was taking too much interest in the nearby open window, one of those narrow ones that flaps down at the top of a larger pane. I kept conceiving of her fingers being in the way if the violent wake of an intercity train passing caused the window to snap shut, or, as she seemed to be doing at one point, of pushing it shut it on her own hand with the help of turbulence.
After we stopped at one station and some hesitation, I felt that I couldn't stand back in the face of what might happen, and, if it did happen, would be deeply damaging to a young child and her fingers, so I approached the woman and, prefacing my remark with the wish that I hoped I wasn't interfering, shared my fears. She then shared them with the girl, and urged the reluctant girl to wave to the man (she never did, but she smiled).
If I'd been asked why, or thanked too much, I'd have said that I would hope that anyone would do the same, even in the keep-myself-to-myself days of train travel when we look at each other and pretend that we haven't, etc.
But I do hope that, that anyone else, seeing the risk, might have dared say something, and have thought nothing special of wanting to avoid a harm to the livelihood of a young life.
Later, after a tiring walk in which I was pulling a case on its wheels, I was kindly offered a lift to the village where the driver also lived. I do not see that, as some would, as karma, but the two were clearly related as acts of care for another.
If such kindnesses happened all the time, would we need to think of talking of karma ?
If you want to Tweet, Tweet away here
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)easily
2 June
England & Wales is a separate legal jurisdiction from Scotland, with its own laws, courts, Acts of Parliament.
It used to be said, in the early 1990s, that it was a principle of the law of England & Wales that, if one saw a child drowning in a puddle of water (i.e. one could intervene and save him or her without hurting oneself), one was under no obligation to prevent it happening.
I have no idea whether that is still so, and, of course, the law assumed the legal fiction of a stranger, whereas a parent would owe different duties. Curious that Lord Denning was at pains to point out the Biblical origins of the law, but this inhumane example showed otherwise, a callous version of the travellers who went by on the other side of the road in the parable of the so-called good Samaritan (the whole point of the parable was to answer the question Who is my neighbour ?, duties to whom some were seeking to avoid).
At any rate, a child standing and playing on the lap of a woman (who turned out to be her grandmother) was taking too much interest in the nearby open window, one of those narrow ones that flaps down at the top of a larger pane. I kept conceiving of her fingers being in the way if the violent wake of an intercity train passing caused the window to snap shut, or, as she seemed to be doing at one point, of pushing it shut it on her own hand with the help of turbulence.
After we stopped at one station and some hesitation, I felt that I couldn't stand back in the face of what might happen, and, if it did happen, would be deeply damaging to a young child and her fingers, so I approached the woman and, prefacing my remark with the wish that I hoped I wasn't interfering, shared my fears. She then shared them with the girl, and urged the reluctant girl to wave to the man (she never did, but she smiled).
If I'd been asked why, or thanked too much, I'd have said that I would hope that anyone would do the same, even in the keep-myself-to-myself days of train travel when we look at each other and pretend that we haven't, etc.
But I do hope that, that anyone else, seeing the risk, might have dared say something, and have thought nothing special of wanting to avoid a harm to the livelihood of a young life.
Later, after a tiring walk in which I was pulling a case on its wheels, I was kindly offered a lift to the village where the driver also lived. I do not see that, as some would, as karma, but the two were clearly related as acts of care for another.
If such kindnesses happened all the time, would we need to think of talking of karma ?
If you want to Tweet, Tweet away here
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