Dr. Liz Brosnan:

I echo what Dr. Morrissey has said and will add a point that is not legislative but is something to bear in mind. People with lived experience of mental health issues and service users experience a form of discrimination that has no name. Every other form of discrimination and stigmatised behaviour has a label, whether sexism, racism, Islamophobia or any other aspect of people's identity by which they are marginalised. Language is important. Many of us are silenced and it is difficult to find words to speak about the way people are set up as subjects under mental health law.

I urge in the strongest possible terms that we use the word "person", bearing in mind that any person can, due to the vagaries of life, end up requiring mental health services. Finding respectful language helps us to build that sense of value and worth to combat the discrimination that has no name.

Some people use the word "sanism". Everybody is presumed to be sane unless he or she comes into contact with mental health services but it is not a very comfortable word and we are trying to find a new way to speak about it. I will leave it at that.