cut backs. Lots of campaigners and the big organisations had a huge
impact in making sure mental healthcare was on the agenda.
It seems like the Legal Aid system is going to suffer though. It makes
up £2.1 billion of the Ministry of Justice's £9 billion budget.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/may/18/legal-aid-cuts-ken-clarke
That's right. Justice and lawyers are very expensive.
Personally I think £2.1 billion is a total bargain for justice. Without
the legal aid system the poor are disadvantaged. It therefore becomes an
unequal system of justice. The system is also very complicated which is
why lawyers are needed to help people through it.
The mentally ill are also disadvantaged with less legal aid. It's not
just Mental Health Review Tribunals. There are many aspects of the law
and social welfare which impact upon the lives of the mentally ill.
I have a dear friend who works for one of the finest legal aid firms in
the UK. She's told me what happens when she's dealt with mentally ill
clients. She finds lots of people aren't even aware of their rights and
how the law protects them. A person may come in with a simple problem
but it turns out they have lots of legal issues. It might be for getting
a higher level of benefit which the person is legally entitled to but
their social worker hasn't sorted it out then it turns out that the
social worker hasn't sorted out something else.
The new funding system isn't set up to cope with that. She is trapped in
trying to help her client to the best of her ability and helping her
next client because any more time she takes doesn't come from an
unlimited budget.
Legal aid firms are struggling in this new climate and as the article
suggests they're turning to call centre techniques to manage the volume
and, I suspect, turning away people who may be complicated cases. That
means there may be legal aid services turning away mentally ill people
because they can't afford to deal with complex cases.
Any increase in the level of injustice caused by the new legal aid
system will affect the mentally ill more.
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