Steve Gilbert
In 2010, Gilbert was sectioned for 21 days: a relatively short time, but “absolutely long enough to know the impact”. He served as a vice-chair for the independent Mental Health Act review, and argues that we already have the research we need to make positive changes – we just need to act on it.
“I don’t have a victim mindset. With all the people I’ve met over the past six years, since I’ve been involved in the mental health and racism discussions, I’ve never met a victim. I’ve met people who have been victims, in the true sense of that word, but I’ve never met somebody with a victim mentality. I’ve met people who are trying their hardest to try to fix a problem that ultimately isn’t ours to fix. We’re just on the end of it.
“Even though that’s the case, we are still saying,
‘We will walk with you, and we will work with you.’ Now it’s up to you. We’ve got recommendations, such as those in the Mental Health Act review, the Lammy review around black communities and criminal justice, the Windrush review, the Working on Race review – there are in excess of 200 recommendations across all the reviews. If everybody who has a responsibility for those recommendations did what they were meant to do, we would be in a very different position. That’s all we’re asking for.”