A trainee human rights lawyer and Swansea LLB Law graduate has launched an innovative new campaign to have sound mental health recognised as a basic human right.
Mohammed Rafiuddin is drawing on a decade of his own mental health struggles to inspire global change, to ensure everyone has the right to be protected from known harms to mental health, and to have access to quality, affordable care.
“Mohammed’s Mental Health Campaign” has a mission to have sound mental health enshrined as an Article in the Human Rights Act, in the same way as the right to privacy or the right to a fair trial is.
The Campaign is a global initiative which seeks to empower individuals battling mental illness, enhance mental health care, and promote awareness and education about mental health issues. The Campaign’s vision is to make sound mental health a universally recognised human right and eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness.
Mohammed, who studied his undergraduate law degree at Swansea University, is set to qualify as a lawyer next spring after his mental health illness forced him to pause his legal career.
He spent almost a decade as a prisoner in his own home as he suffered from depression, anxiety, and psychosis. In the early stages of his battle, after finally plucking up the courage to seek help, Mohammed says his mental health crisis was dismissed by a GP as “just stress”.
Speaking of his experiences, Mohammed says:
“I knew what stress felt like, and this wasn’t it. I battled for a diagnosis and saw seven different therapists, spent my 30th birthday in a mental health ward and was taking four different prescription medications a day just to stay alive.
“Together, we can rewrite the narrative surrounding mental health and ensure that no one is left behind in their battle for a life of sound mental health. My therapist once said to me, ‘wouldn’t it be great if people treated their mental illness the same way they would treat an illness of their eyes, or ears, or leg?’
“While a lot has changed in the past decade, we’re still struggling to treat our mental health the same as other physical conditions, and the lack of funding for mental health research and mental health services is a huge part of that.”
Mohammed has, with the help of extensive therapy, medication, and his own self-belief, overcome his mental illness and is now determined to complete his law training.
Bringing his law expertise and specialism in human rights together with his personal experience, Mohammed aims to help others. He hopes his Campaign will challenge stigma, save lives, and influence politicians to allocate more funding to mental health services.