Joy Division’s Bernard Sumner calls for changes to patient confidentiality rules to allow families to care for people with mental health problems and slams waiting lists for treatment on the anniversary of ex-bandmate Ian Curtis’s suicide
- Iconic Joy Division singer Ian Curtis took his own life 42 years ago today
- Sumner criticised rules preventing medical details being shared with family
- Friend’s son killed himself after they were not told about his psychosis
Joy Division and New Order star Bernard Sumner today called for a change in patient confidentially rules to allow families to better care for people with mental health problems.
The new wave legend used the anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis to criticise rules that prevent relatives being given details of conditions suffered by people they are looking after.
The 66-year-old was in Parliament with drummer Stephen Morris to discuss suicide prevention, 42 years after the iconic frontman took his own life at the age of just 23. The pair and their bandmates have campaigned for better mental health treatment since.
Sumner told the event attended by Labour leader Keir Starmer and Mental Health Minister Gillian Keegan that a friend had been forced to care for his son after a failed suicide attempt without knowing what was wrong with him.
He would go on to successfully take his own life and it was only after that that they found out he was suffering from psychosis.
‘He was put in an institution for three weeks and he was seeing a psychiatrist. The medical authorities wouldn’t discuss with his parents what the problem was, because he was a certain age – 19,’ Sumner said.
‘Then he was released from the hospital into the care of his parents and they still wouldn’t tell the parents what was wrong. So they didn’t know why he tried to commit suicide.
‘I understand patient confidentiality but it seems under extreme circumstances like that something should change.’
The 66-year-old was in Parliament with drummer Stephen Morris to discuss suicide prevention, 42 years after iconic frontman Curtis took his own life at the age of just 23. The pair and their bandmates have campaigned for better mental health treatment since.
Sumner told the event attended by Labour leader Keir Starmer and Mental Health Minister Gillian Keegan that a friend had been forced to care for his son after a failed suicide attempt without knowing what was wrong with him.
Ian Curtis took his own lifer aged 23 in 1980, before Joy Division’s first US tour
Sumner (centre in Rotterdam with Joy Division in 1980) also spoke about Curtis’s rapid decline after being diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed a heavy dose of barbiturates as treatment.
Sumner also spoke about Curtis’s rapid decline after being diagnosed with epilepsy and being prescribed a heavy dose of barbiturates as treatment.
He described the singer as being ‘on a mission’ to end his life, saying: ‘I don’t know what more we could have done.’
He blasted the current ‘ludicrous’ waiting times for mental health care as he warned people who are suicidal cannot wait for treatment.
The strain placed on the NHS by the pandemic has led to massive increases in waiting time for a range of elective treatments of up to 18 months.
‘You can’t have a waiting list if you are thinking of killing yourself, he said.
‘It’s ludicrous. You need help straight away.’
The event, organised by Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy, was hosted by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, whose daughter Natalie took her own life in 2017.
He broke down as he told the audience how her death at the age of 28 had left him ‘broken’.
Ms Keegan told the event: ‘We know there are massive waiting lists, I look at the waiting list every day. And every single person who doesn’t get treatment, I worry about it.’
Last month ministers launched plans for s 10-year scheme designed to improve care and people’s lives.
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