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Petition Tag - schizophrenia
1. People with mental illness should not have to die early 
People with severe mental illness (SMI) can, on average, die up to 25 years earlier than the rest of the community.
MIFA wants to expose and highlight the national neglect which is causing people with SMI to experience poor physical health during their life and to die early.
*Diabetes occurs in about 15% of people with schizophrenia. This is three times higher than that of the general population.
*31% of people with schizophrenia and coronary heart disease (CHD) are diagnosed under the age of 55, compared with 18% of others with CHD;
*21% of people with schizophrenia who have a stroke are under 55, compared with 11% of others who have a stroke.
*After five years, 28% of people with respiratory disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder who also have schizophrenia have died, compared with 15% of people with no serious mental health problems.
2. Demand NICE Remove Stakeholder Only Mental Health Service Users In Consultation Processes
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) consults on new draft quality standards and guidance on service user experience in mental health and patient experience in NHS services and has launched a new consultation.
HOWEVER an interested party has discovered that the only people able to contribute are 'Registered Stakeholders'. and finding out who these are, and being able to get your views represented is a process which guarantees little, if any success.
Some may not wish to provide personal stories to Registered Stakeholders (strangers), and there is no other facility to have YOUR important views heard.
This means the results cannot be fully representative of the Service User Community as a whole and we would call on NICE to consider changing the process by which they determine and gather the evidence they use in their guidelines.
This is especially important during this traumatic period of changes to the NHS, cuts in Mental Health Service budgets and an increase in cases of mental illness.
See http://www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/pressreleases/PatientExpAndAdultMentalHealthServiceUserGuidelineQS.jsp
3. Support Mental Health Rights
Mental Health history is sad and unfortunate. Conditions are improving. People are still subjected to involuntary admissions, solitude, excess drugs, electrocution, and lack of factual disclosure of treatments.
Mental phenomena cannot be proven true or false, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia may be based on real experience, and need not be condemned.