Change.org, YOUR signature matters, please read

[Jaco45er]

Good afternoon to all the lovely members of NMP.

My name is Steve aka Jaco45er, long time member, ex admin and good friend of Nicola and others I have met here through the years.

Nicola has kindly granted me permission for the following thread:

For sometime, many people who work in Mental Health in a professional capacity, along with sufferers and observers alike have been concerned with the lack of regulation in the Private Mental Health Practitioner industry.

As you may or may not be aware, there is no mechanism in place to regulate anyone wanting to set up a business to treat mental health sufferers. This has led to non-qualified practitioners offering services which, in itself is slightly worrying but there has been an increasing number of well documented incidents of sufferers who have bought these services and/or programs, being threatened with action (usually legal or police) if they question the advertising claims, or complain about the treatment, ultimately causing the sufferer great distress and silenced through this and other forms of intimidation.

Myself and others have long called for proper regulation in this sector, in the form of registration for any individual or company wishing to work within this field and an official ombudsman setup to give sufferers protection from intimidation and threats if they feel they have been unfairly treated or succumbed to false advertising.

A Clinical psychologist, Dr Damian Wilde has created a Change.org petition "Regulation Needed for Independent Mental Health Practitioners" and he is appealing to you too sign and share this petition.

I am sure you will agree that protecting the vulnerable is paramount, and as sufferer's of varying mental health conditions we can all agree that this should be law.

We have all felt despair at one time or another, and reached out for help when we are at our most vulnerable. How important to have legislation to protect those at this point cannot be understated.

You can sign here:

https://www.change.org/p/jackie-doyle-price-mp-regulation-needed-for-independent-mental-health-practitioners

Already over 100 signatures within 12 hours and 3 MP's are aware and in correspondence with the author.

I want to thank you for reading, and please please help Dr Wilde in his quest to have this industry regulated.

P.S. This is a general petition aimed at a whole industry and is not intended to single out any one company or individual. If you have had a bad experience, please do not discuss on this thread or name the company involved (UK or otherwise), but show your support by signing the petition.

Yours sincerely,

Jaco45er xx

[nomorepanic]

bump

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi Jaco,

Signed. :winks:

I was disgusted that Geraint Davies raised a virtue signalling Bill of Parliament to just let the session run out without requested it be continued. Clearly he didn't give a monkeys about protecting vulnerable people and just wanted to score some points in Parliament. He added gay conversion therapy to his Bill and still let it slide.

I hope this one gains some traction into Parliament. It should be a petition aiming for over 100k signatures in my opinion but it's looking like a small one so maybe needs more circulation. It would be very useful if the social media activists could get a hold of it and float it around.

I haven't looked at the MP's mentioned. Are they Labour or Tory? Labour have built a lot of social media expertise so could really get it out there if they wanted it.

I'm afraid I have my doubts about this as I believe it's just too large to legislate on without a load of work in future years. I think it's going to cost a load of money and that may be why the government will be happy to sit back and let self regulation take the costs. It needs to be properly audited and sadly there are ways around the current auditing of registers in this sector.

Then there is the online, programme selling, etc that can be international hence falls outside of any legislation because they will simply sell it from outside the UK. Even if something was pushed by MEP's to get the EU to crack down, which I doubt they would as it's a small issue given the size of issues across Europe, then they would just flock to the US.

The ASA are a woeful self regulatory body for this sector. Having mandatory registration would at least allow for proper disputes and action taken that could lead to criminal charges.

I hope there is a comprehensive look into what is needed.

NMP members - you all need to look at this, it is aimed at protecting us all in the UK from dubious practitioners.

[BikerMatt]

Signed:)

[Jaco45er]

Hi Terry

I hope you are well, been a long time. I would like to put you in touch with the Dr that initiated the petition. I know you have done some really extensive research in this area and I am sure he will be keen to share notes.

The first MP I contacted was Tory Charles Walker MP of the Broxbourne constituency. I did not choose him because I am a fan of the Tories, or live in the area, but he'd written an article in the Telegraph about his struggles with Mental Health issues and being an MP.

I had sent him some examples and claims from a well-known, self-confessed anxiety guru (non-qualified by any recognised body) and he quickly replied (on Parliament letterhead paper no less), expressing his huge concern and gave me some pointers and people to speak too.

Not long after I had a call from a Sunday Mail journalist who had been talking to a lot of people with regards to a certain individual, and I told him my story with regards to this matter. To my knowledge, this is still being investigated.

You are very correct in what you say, but I think if we can get at least a real body with teeth (ASA is too weak) to protect consumers then it's a step forward.

There is some absolute dispicable "practioners" out there, willing to use any cowardly means to silence critics. Even narcissists need therapy !!

Take care :)

Jaco