Patient safety for those with mental health needs is being compromised, particularly those from deprived areas or those from ethnic minority groups.
People with mental health needs are not getting the care they need thanks to a lack of staff, beds and training.
The Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and social care in England, interviewed more than 4,500 people who were detained under the Mental Health Act or sectioned, covering 870 wards, and spoke to relatives and people who were previously detained for its latest mental health report.
“We urgently need more community support and a better understanding of people’s needs to reduce the number of people being detained,” said interim director of mental health Jenny Wilkes.
“And we know the situation is even starker for people from deprived areas, people from ethnic minority groups, autistic people and people with a learning disability. While the Mental Health Bill aims to address inappropriate detentions and improve mental health care, this can’t be addressed by legislation alone as there simply aren’t the resources to fix these issues,” she continued.
Demand outstrips supply
With demand far outstripping capacity, the report finds that there are not enough beds available, meaning people are placed far from home, their family, and their friends.
There are also not enough staff to support all patients, which is affecting people’s access to care and leading to people being restricted from going outside as there is nobody to supervise them, or in the most extreme cases, people being inappropriately confined.
While many respondents describe healthcare workers as “caring” and “wonderful”, there are ongoing concerns with staff numbers and training. In particular, not all staff have undertaken the mandatory training to understand the needs of autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Despite a legal entitlement to aftercare, overstretched general practice and community mental health services are not always able to provide a supportive transition back into the community, meaning people do not have the best chance at recovery. In nearly half of cases where a child or young person was detained, they had to be re-admitted within a year.
Young people, people from ethnic minority groups, and people from areas of deprivation face the biggest barriers to accessing care and are sectioned at higher rates than the general population.
Black people in particular are detained at 3.5 times the rate of white people. Meanwhile, people from the most deprived areas are attending A&E services for their mental health at 3.5 times the rate of people from the least deprived areas.
