New Report On Mental Health Act In 2011/12 Published

Photograph by Damork

The Care Quality Commission’s annual monitoring report on use of the Mental Health Act has drawn attention to rising use of the Act both to detain people in hospital and to continue to use compulsory powers when they return home.

The number of people who have been detained has risen steadily each year since the 1983 Act was amended in 2007, while the introduction of community treatment orders is extending the use of compulsion when people are discharged.

The report shines a light on the way people are treated once they are detained. Like recent reports from Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, it describes wide variations in the quality of experience of detained patients.

It shows, for example, that a significant minority of detained patients are not involved in decisions about their treatment or in planning for their discharge from hospital.

The report also draws attention to the continued high rates of detention, and in particular the use of community treatment orders, among many Black and minority ethnic groups.
Worryingly, the report also finds that too few people are offered access to independent advocacy. Access to an advocate is a fundamental safeguard in the 2007 Mental Health Act and research by the Mental Health Alliance and others has identified a gap in provision of advocacy services, especially for some Black and minority ethnic communities.

The full report is available to read here: http://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/documents/cqc_mentalhealth_2011_12_main_final_web.pdf