Before you shuffle off your mortal coil you might well pass through a phase of mental ill-health, usually chronic depression or anxiety; many people do.

Some people soldier on alone and struggle through darkness into sunshine again.

For others the condition is either more protracted or, worse, it comes and goes as though with a life of its own.

In the past the answer was chemical. In the 1950s, for example, medication for post-natal depression turned a generation of young mothers into virtual junkies.

In the 1960s the Rolling Stones wrote a song about this hidden form of depressive drug dependency - Mother's Little Helper.

Since then things have changed. There are help groups for people who feel emotionally or mentally stranded on the dark side of the moon. The Bradford and Airedale Mental Health Advocacy Group, for example, has been in existence since 1989.

For those unfamiliar with the group which employs about a dozen people, largely part-time, it was created as a result of research which showed that patients at Lynfield Mount Hospital had no-one to speak up for them, to act as a bridge over troubled water to the professionals administering to them.

The 1975 movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest dramatised this situation, and incensed some professionals for its depiction of life in a mental institution and its unsympathetic staff whose attitude was that patients were there to be treated and do as they were told.

Some people working in the field of advocacy are worried that future Government legislation aimed at regulating advocacy services will inadvertently result in bureaucratic regimentation with systems coming first and actual patients second.

Kate Greenwood, the Bradford and Airedale Mental Health Advisory Group's deputy manager and older people's mental health advocate said: "For me advocacy is about support and empowerment. It's not about ticking boxes."

Sharon Cullerton, the group's director, said: "There has been a lot of academic interest in advocacy particularly about mental health advocacy. If the Government regulates the provision, as could happen sometime over the next 24 months, our way of doing things might be changed and funding might be put on a national basis."

The group's "way of doing things" is to put patients first. An advocate is independent of statutory services, has no duty of care and therefore no conflict of interests when supporting individuals.

Advocacy involves speaking up for a person in a way that they would speak for themselves, enabling their voice to be heard and helping to create opportunities for direct contact with health service professionals.

"There are as many differences in mental health as in physical health; but they're not as visible as, say, a broken leg," said Sharon.

"Someone on medication for depression is not as obvious. People find it isolating and dis-empowering. Most people experience mental ill-health, but it is when they seek medical help, perhaps to get to sleep or to reduce anxiety, where the possibility of support comes in."

Kate Greenwood said the Government should regulate service support for the benefit of the patients, not for the benefit of health service professionals.

"Ask service users what they want. I feel, and I might be wrong, that the Government is moving towards a best interest' model. That means people making judgements on what they think is best for you. And that is not what advocacy is about," Sharon added. "Advocacy is about helping people's voices to be heard.

"I would like to see every area in this country have the advocacy service that Bradford has got. There isn't a better way of providing advocacy than leading by example.

"Advocacy's biggest guiding principle is empowerment. People have to take responsibility for themselves but they may need support, someone to speak on their behalf, to get there. Advocacy is about making yourself (as an advocate) redundant."

Mental problems aren't restricted to loonies.' Winston Churchill used to suffer from physically debilitating attacks of depression that he referred to as "the black dog." Vincent Van Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, T S Eliot and his first wife Vivienne and Kurt Cobain - all brilliantly gifted and all afflicted with a form of madness or suicidal depression.

The Bradford and Airedale Mental Health Advocacy Group offers advocacy, befriending (for patients in need of someone to talk to confidentially) and volunteer befriending. Sometimes those who call up in need of befriending themselves become volunteer befrienders.

It would be a shame if any of this was impaired or lost through well-intentioned but misconceived Government legislation.

l Anyone interested in contacting the Bradford and Airedale group should ring (01274) 770118.

What's on, where...


l The Mad Arts Festival runs until next Sunday, October 15. During that time numerous events in venues all over the city are planned.

l Exhibitions that started earlier this month at The Love Apple Caf, Rafters in Little Horton Lane, Le Caf Bleu, the Fair Trade Caf and Indulge are scheduled to run until either the 15th or 26th.

l Tomorrow between 2pm and 4pm poet John Siddique is holding a workshop and giving a performance at Bradford University's Theatre in the Mill. From 9pm to 1am The Love Apple caf will be hosting live music from Modeliste, Heather Bayliss, Tim Moon and poetry from John Siddique and Bruce Barnes.

l On Wednesday, The New Beehive, Westgate, is the venue for Tales of Madness from 8pm - fairy stories, tall stories, caring stories and much more.

l Artist and campaigner Aiden Shingler gives a talk and a slide-show at Bradford University's School of Health Studies from 3.30pm to 4.30pm.

l On Friday - the 13th appropriately - artists Donna Shinkins and Naomi Wise are holding a creative art workshop at the Quaker Meeting House, Russell Street, Bradford 5, from 1pm to 2.30pm. Then, from 8pm to 10pm, the New Beehive hosts two hours of superstition stories and music.

l On Saturday between 1pm and 3pm there will be a guided walking tour of Lister Park and Cartwright Hall, followed on Sunday at the same times by a guided tour of the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television.

For more Mad Arts information check the website www.evolving-minds.co.uk