Hafal welcomes the publication of a report on 28 July by the NHS treatments watchdog, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, stating that the 170,000 people a year who attend hospital after deliberately harming themselves should be treated with the same care, respect and privacy as any other patient.

Hafal is looking at how progress is being made in Scotland where they have their own Mental Health Act. Bill Walden-Jones, Chief Executive of Hafal, is visiting National Schizophrenia Fellowship Scotland this week to find out first hand about the Mental Health Act (Scotland) 2003, which will come into force from April 2005.

A new facility – the Cardiff University Brain and Repair Language Centre – will be one of the first in the UK to have a range of state-of-the-art facilities for brain research including research into psychiatric disorder.

Mental health services in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion are threadbare and often unable to help service users with urgent needs, according to a Commission for Health Improvement investigation report published in March.

Hafal has called on the Welsh Assembly Government to tackle the scandal of institutional racism in the NHS by implementing the recommendations of the Rocky Bennett inquiry findings as a matter of urgency.

Bill Walden-Jones, Chief Executive of Hafal and John Saunders, Chief Executive of Schizophrenia Ireland were guests of Cliff Prior, Chief Executive of Rethink in Nottingham when they visited an advice line and employment/conservation project as well as discussing mutual concerns