Rethink Mental Illness and Mind have collaborated with the Royal College of Psychiatrists to try to persuade MPs to back the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill and scrap ‘outdated’ laws.

The two mental health charities and the college are hoping that their letter to the editor published in today’s Times will help persuade MPs to vote through legislation on 14 September - this Friday - which will repeal laws that they feel discriminate against people with mental health problems.

“The Bill will get rid of laws that prevent some people from participating in key aspects of citizenships,” reads the letter, which is signed by Paul Jenkins, CEO, Rethink Mental Illness; Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind; and president of the Royal College of Physicians Professor Sue Bailey. “[These include] becoming a company director, juror or MP, purely because they have a history of mental health problems – even if they have fully recovered.”

The Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill was first introduced in April 2011, by Lord Stevenson of Coddenham.

At the Bill’s second reading in the House of Lords on Friday 25 November 2011 it received the support of the government but ran out of Parliamentary time. It was brought back as a Private Member's Bill in June 2012 by MP Gavin Barwell.

‘An historic opportunity’

The letter describes the second reading of the Bill on Friday as "an historic opportunity" for MPs to act, and goes on to say how people with physical illnesses such as cancer would never be treated in the way that mental health sufferers are.

It points out how when the Bill was first introduced earlier this year many MPs spoke out about their own mental health experiences – and urges them to now “turn that goodwill into action” on Friday.

“It will send out a clear message that people with mental health problems can and should be able to contribute to society on an equal footing to everyone else,” the letter concludes.

The letter is published on today’s National Suicide Awareness day.