Scottish Union of Mental Patients

The Scottish Union of Mental Patients was an organisation first established by mental patients at Hartwood Hospital in July 1971.^[1]: 38 27 patients signed a petition requesting "redress of grievances and better conditions" at the hospital.^[1]: 38 This was the first Mental Patients Union to be formed in the UK and predated the Mental Patients' Union founded in London in 1973.^[2] It was founded by Thomas Ritchie, and Robin Farquharson was also a participant.^[3] Unlike many other examples of anti-psychiatry SUMP was based on a sense of solidarity amongst a small group of patients detained in locked wards.^[1]

Origins

The idea of a union for inmates of mental hospitals was first posed by Archie Meek, a 91 year old geriatric patient. He made this remark to Thomas Ritchie, another patient who was helping Archie shave at the time.^[2] Ritchie was at the time a state patient – a provision under Scottish Law for the indeterminate detention of a mental patient – under which he was detained for 8 years.