The General Election will be held later this week. A survey conducted by The Royal College of Occupational Therapists found that one in six of people (or 17%) of people aged over 18 in the UK would be put off voting because of their physical or mental illness – the equivalent of nine million people. We spoke with John Dyas, Counsellor and Therapy Co-Ordinator about how Gateway Recovery Centre supports people to exercise their democratic rights.
“We have a long history of supporting people to learn about democracy and to exercise their democratic rights. A group visited and lobbied MPs at the Houses of Parliament on changes to the Mental Health Act back in 2022. The group were due to return this July but our visit has been postponed due to the upcoming election.
“Voting remains a really important subject at Gateway and we try very hard to support people to understand their rights. Some people may have been supported in services for a long time and feel they don’t have many rights. We promote that you do have rights and you don’t have to ask for permission to do things.
“If people want to engage, we want to facilitate that and we do it in a very co-produced way. We are here to help people with their recovery and for them to be as empowered as possible.
“That feeds into voting. We have open discussions about different parties. It’s all educational and we want people to understand their vote can make an impact on the care and funding they receive. We educate without imposing our own personal views. That can be difficult but it’s not about us, it’s about the people we support and their having choice and making up their minds. If they make a choice that we think in personal view isn’t the right one, that’s ok. And it is important they know that too.
“I found the Royal College of Occupational Therapists research shocking. Many people don’t think they have the right to vote because they are supported in a service and that makes me incredibly sad. It is so important that people know we value them and value their voice and they have the right the vote.
“Some people may not be able to vote depending on their detention status but we would be able to advise on that. However, we include everyone in the educational information and sessions we hold.
“For the upcoming General Election, we have printed off easy read information about voting and the election and these have been put on every ward. We have also held a talk about the election and voting on each ward.
“We’ve held café sessions where people can just turn up and decide what they want to talk about – and they have asked to talk about politics! We have talked about each party, we’ve held a quiz on politics. That was a fun thing and it got people asking questions. Some people said they had never really thought about it before but now they’re intrigued. Some people have been watching Question Time too.
“And being prepared and comfortable to vote is really key. We know that for some people anything new or unfamiliar, or even something we don’t do regularly, can raise anxiety. So we are going to set up our own voting station on site to go through everything as an interactive process and to practice.
“We have had people asking ‘why bother, my vote won’t make a difference’. But it will. We want to remove barriers. We have supported people to register to vote and we will support them to vote on a postal basis or on the day.”