Black Mental Health UK: your news, policy and research resource on mental health and African Caribbean communities. We aim to reduce the inequalities in the treatment and care of people from African Caribbean communities and inform these communities on how to influence the strategic development, policy design and implementation of services.

January 2008
In a month where civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King's birthday is celebrated for his commitment to race equality and social justice, the equity that Dr King fought for, is as sadly distant a reality in many arenas including the area of mental health provision within the UK.

The celebration of Dr Martin Luther King week in January is seen as an opportunity to commemorate and sustain the fight against social justice and discrimination.

Here in Britain we are faced with the sinister prospect of seeing African Caribbean's face routine discrimination across all custodial settings, sadly, in an increasing number of incidences, this is leading to loss of life.

In an open letter to The Voice News paper, entitled, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere', Black Mental Health UK's director, Matilda Macattram, inspired by the immortal words of Dr King, written in a letter from a Birmingham City Jail, makes it clear that now, as then, there is the  need for urgent action to address the daily injustices that Black Britons faced today.

Read Black Mental Health UK's open letter to The Voice Newspaper  on the deaths in custody and mental health treatment which has destroyed a generation of people from these communities.

'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere', Dr Martin Luther King, 1929 - 1968