19 April 2023

CNWL’s Masum Khwaja has been working to promote the voting rights of mental health patients for 15 years, arguing that it should be an important issue all of us in society who believe in social justice and wish to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Masum is passionate that it is especially important to protect the voting rights of people who are more vulnerable to social or political exclusion.

In an article he has written for the Centre for Mental Health, he said: “Citizenship-oriented care is a relatively new concept in mental health that goes beyond clinical and personal models of recovery to recognise the negative impact of discrimination and disenfranchisement in populations with mental illness and emphasises the benefits of full and valued participation in society.

“Measures that promote social inclusion and citizenship, and challenge mental health stigma and discrimination, are likely to improve the chances of recovery from mental illness. The right to vote is one such measure, and increasingly mental health clinicians and organisations are recognising the power of citizenship-orientated care to improve the lives of patients.

“If it were in my gift, citizenship-oriented care, and supporting patients to register and to vote, would be part of every patient’s care plan. We already support patients with accessing benefits, legal advice and employment so why shouldn’t we support them to register and to vote?”

Click here to read Masum’s article in full. You can also view a film that CNWL produced on voting rights here.