The voting rights of psychiatric patients

A recent study of the knowledge and uptake of voting rights by adult inpatients at the 2010 UK general election found:

Eligible to vote psychiatric adult in-patients were half as likely to register as the general population and half as likely to vote if registered. 

Nine out of ten of those unregistered cited a lack of knowledge of their eligibility to vote or of the registration process. Long-stay patients were particularly disenfranchised.

In an attempt to improve this sorry state of affairs, the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have published a leaflet setting out patients' rights and how they can exercise them.