EasyJet founder adds his support

Senior figures from business and the arts have spoken out in support of The Independent on Sunday's campaign.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of the low-cost airline easyJet, revealed that a member of his own family had suffered from mental health problems.

"I think the maximum I could say out of respect for the people involved is, why should my family be different if it's every family in the land that's affected?" he said. "You don't get stigmatised for having a kidney problem, but you do get stigmatised for a mental health problem."

Mr Haji-Ioannou has now made a private donation to a five-year national campaign led by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Changing Minds is intended to increase public and professional under-standing of mental disorders.

The artist Tracey Emin, who has suffered from depression herself, said greater "emotional care" should be extended to the mentally ill. She criticised government policies, describing them as "wishy-washy and making too many compromises".

"People with mental illness shouldn't be lumped together into one category," she said. "Each case should be looked at individually."

Penelope Keith, the actress who starred in the television series The Good Life and To the Manor Born and is now High Sheriff of Surrey, was also keen to support our campaign.

"As a result of the previous government getting rid of a number of institutions, an awful lot of people with mental illness have fetched up in prison, and that's not where they should be," she said.

Ruth Lesirge, head of the Mental Health Foundation, said initiatives such as ours were crucial if society was ever to overcome its prejudices towards mental illness.

"There is still a major stigma attached to mental illness, and it is in part a lack of understanding, knowledge and information," said Ms Lesirge. "Too many people see the illness rather than the person, and that is a terrible waste.

"It's a curious paradox that this attitude exists when one in four of us will experience some kind of mental health problems in our lifetime."

Jed Roberts, a lawyer at Peter Edwards Law, one of the country's leading practices specialising in mental health issues, said he feared the Government's proposed Mental Health Act would make a bad situation even worse.

"The Act is very ill thought out," he said. "The Government was given a lot of advice from the legal profession and consultant psychiatrists, but didn't listen to it."

The forgotten

By Jonathan Thompson

"Richard" was running his own IT company when he was first diagnosed with schizophrenia 16 years ago. He hasn't worked since.

Now 41, Richard has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals 11 times since 1986. Each time he was released, inadequate provisions for care in the community saw him returned to hospital.

In September 1999, Richard was convicted of GBH while staying at a North London hostel for the mentally ill. He claims he was simply trying to defend himself when a man he didn't know attempted to force medication on him.

Detained under the Mental Health Act, Richard was sent to a medium secure unit. Three years on, he is still being detained – in spite of a tribunal ruling 14 months ago that he should be released.

The hearing, which took place in May 2001, granted a conditional discharge, to be deferred until appropriate arrangements could be made for his release. Richard's health authority in London would be responsible for providing him with a community psychiatrist. As soon as this individual was agreed upon, Richard could leave the secure unit.

Unfortunately, no psychiatrists who were willing to supervise the case could be found within the health authority. Richard was left stranded inside the hospital – miles from his family and friends, and powerless to do anything other than hope a suitable psychiatrist could be found at some point in the future, either within his own health authority or another in London. The only alternative would be to face another tribunal, and run the risk of its judgement being similarly disregarded, or having his right to discharge revoked.

Richard was unable to speak directly to The Independent on Sunday, but spoke of his frustrations through a solicitor.

"They're trying to force me to be retried for a judgement that's already been given," he said. "I really feel that they're acting above the law.

"I've had so much trouble with the system over the past 16 years. It's hard to believe it could be so consistently incompetent over such a long period of time. I just want to be given the chance to get on with my life as the tribunal directed I should."

Richard's solicitor, Mavis Campbell of North London-based firm Kaim Todner, said that her client had been "left in limbo".

"We feel that this whole situation usurps the function of tribunal," she said. "How can you have this body to make decisions when it can then be overridden by the whim of a consultant psychiatrist? The system needs to be reviewed properly – and soon."