Black lives matter. Of continuing concern has been the persistently negative attitudes towards black people caught up in the mental health care system. Being sectioned under the Mental Health Act, is one of the most traumatic experiences that can happen to anyone. The long awaited 2018 independent review of the Mental Health Act offered 150 recommendations, yet to be implemented. A review by National MIND found that black people are three times more likely to be restrained and four times more likely to be sectioned. The emphasis upon control instead of listening to people during an assessment can be very damaging. A short video sent from National MIND, expresses the unheard feelings of a black man who had been sectioned four times. He said,?When they look at me, they don?t see Colin, they don?t see me as an individual with an identity, with a specific history. They see a catalogue of black men who come off this stereotype of being big, black and angry.? Tragically. this appalling institutional prejudice still holds sway in some quarters. At the start of what turned out to be my long career in mental health services, community care rights and research, a fellow student friend and I had the good fortune to be invited to join the London Samaritans. On duty, we learnt the value of unprejudiced listening to the voices of callers on the telephone by day or during the night.
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