Historic publication focuses on Black Mental Health

Solution magazine marks a breakthrough in the way issues that activists have been campaigning on for a number of years have been taken up by senior politicians.

This week writing the foreword, Home Secretary Theresa May MP commended the first print edition and the crucial work done by Black Mental Health UK .

Focusing on the theme of ‘Policing, Mental Health & black Briton’ this edition was launched at the recent joint high level Home Office and BMH UK summit on this issue.

Minister for Mental Health Norman Lamb is another political big hitter contributing to the first issue.

The cover feature by Dr Joanna Bennett, key progenitor of the David ‘Rocky’ Bennett inquiry report reveals that 10 years after she started campaigning, many key issues on the treatment of people from the community detained in mental health hospitals still need to be addressed.

Dr Leslie Thomas QC sets out the ‘problems with restraint’ and there’s also an exclusive feature on Taser, mental health and Black Londoners.

This edition’s Editor’s Column looks at the changes that have been made following the first ever parliamentary debate on ‘black deaths in custody’ tabled by Charles Walker MP in December 2013. Walker continues to be a driving force for positive change in the corridors of power on the issue of mental health and the UK’s African Caribbean communities.

Angella Corinna and Jeremy Grant give voice to the voiceless on our poets’ page, while Chris De La Rosa of Caribbean Pot.com’s latest recipes on our menu’s page are guaranteed to tantalise your taste buds and get you cooking up a storm. Also the Black Cultural Archives and Narrative Eye sheds light on the historic contributions of the Diaspora.

Finally, there’s an exclusive interview with former chair of the United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent, Prof Verene Shepherd and a run down on the UN General Assembly’s proclamation that 2015 marks the commencement of the Decade of People of African Descent.

You can read the full magazine here

Matilda MacAttram