3 Minute Speech for Dartford Planning Meeting

This is the speech I gave at Planning Dept Meeting. Never done it before. Outside is a crowd of people from local residents assn. who do not want hospital to house 'Loonies' to be built. There are about 30 of them and a local press photographer. I am forbidden to speak to the press. I sneak in the front door and the security guard lets me stay because i am the only person who wants the hospital built and 300 residents have signed a petition against it. I am somewhat disturbed. I however manage to go out to the side entrance where everybody gets let in at the right time and successfully mix with the crowds. They do not seem to recognise my 'mad axe murderer tendencies'

I am here today because I would like to think I represent the friendly face of Mental Illness. I would first like to thank Gary Reynolds (Newtown Residents Assn) for bringing me up to date by delivering a copy of (Residents viewpoint) the proposal by hand.

I would like to allay the fears of those residents who live in or whose children go to school in the area in which the proposed developement if approved will will be built.

There seems to be a fear that people with Mental Illness are dangerous and are best kept under lock and key. I would suggest that the media is partly responsible for perpetuating this myth. A small proportion of people with mental illnesses are capable of harming others but these are the minority. You may have some one with a mental health problem living next door to you and you would not know.

I understood from the newspaper that the hospital is intended for people with brain damage. Brain damaged people are not mentally ill. Their brain damage may result in partial or physical disability. They may be wheel chair bound or reliant on walking sticks. They may be bed bound. They are not criminals, child molesters or psychopaths.

You may say to yourselves “its alright for her, bet its not being built on her doorstep” and you would be right in saying that. But I have lived with a Mental Hospital on my door step for 10 years and the worst that happened was that somebody who took themselves out for a walk died of exposure in the adjoining woodland. He got lost.

You may not know it but it is a fact that 1 in 4 people in the UK suffers from a mental illness at some point in their lives. Depression is a mental illness. Post natal depression is a mental illness. A mental illness is not something you are born with, it can happen to anyone. The demand for drugs to alleviate Mental Health problems is on the increase due to the present economic crisis. There is a chronic shortage of inpatient beds for MH sufferers.

The government is driving an initiative to address the stigma of mental health so that sufferers can begin to live a normal life. People with mental health problems are ill. If your mother got alzheimers you would want good care for her. If Winston Churchill had been locked up in an “asylum” would we all be here today having this debate!

As to the risk of “crime in the community” being added to by the building of this unit, I would like to reiterate, that people suffering from Mental Health problems are no more likely to be Peadophiles, Sex Offenders, Drug Pushers, Psychopaths, Thieves or Criminals than any other member of the community.

Thank you

I realise after speeches and an hour of debate that the councillors are looking for something, anything, that will allow them to refuse planning permission. The following week I received a letter informing me that planning permission had as I expected been turned down.