We engage with people to ensure that our influencing is driven by the views and experiences of people who have lived experience. Our various engagement activities gave us the opportunity to understand more about the perspectives of people with direct experience of being detained in hospital to be treated for their mental health.
As well as specific issues with the Act, what they told us made it clear that there are very serious issues in how people are treated when they are at their most unwell, including around institutionalised racism and disadvantage, lack of mental health services and poor discharge from hospital. This is why we need reform to the law, but also transformative changes to mental health services.
The changes recommended by the Review set out to give much greater legal weight to people's wishes and preferences and to require stronger, transparent justification for using compulsory powers. They address the needs of particular groups affected by the Act including people from minority ethnic communities, and they call for improvements in services.
Read the full report and recommendations.
We welcome the Review’s recommendations to increase people’s choice and dignity when they are subject to the Mental Health Act, and for promoting race equality in mental health services and the use of the Act.
However, we were disappointed that the Review has not recommended getting rid of Community Treatment Orders (CTOs). These have not reduced hospital re-admissions and are often experienced as coercive, especially by people from Black or Black British backgrounds, who are more likely to be subjected to CTOs.
We will be pushing the Government to formally adopt and act on the review's recommendations as a whole, and will continue to hold it to account on its promises to reform mental health care.
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