An overhaul of what Boris Johnson described as “outdated” mental health laws will make it more difficult to detain people with learning disabilities and autism in hospital.
The reforms – which will form part of the Queen’s speech next week and are the first major changes to the Mental Health Law in Four Decades – These are designed to reduce the number of people detained under current laws in England and Wales. The number of arrests increased by 40% between 2005-06 and 2015-16 and has continued to increase year on year.
Details of the new mental health bill were announced on Friday night by Downing Street, which said it delivered on key commitments in the manifesto.
They include ending a situation where people with learning disabilities and people with autism can be detained under the law, even if the patient does not suffer from any mental health problems. This practice will end up eliminating learning disabilities and autism as mental health disorders.
While current laws allow treatment to be forced on patients against their wishes, the bill will allow them to express a preference or refuse a specific treatment when a suitable alternative is available.
Johnson said: “Our mental health laws are outdated. Every person deserves to be treated with dignity, and it is our duty to ensure that the rights and freedoms of the most vulnerable in society are protected and respected.”
Sign up for First Edition, our free daily newsletter, every Monday to Friday morning at 7am BST
Downing Street said the reforms would help address disparities and reduce the number of people from minority ethnic backgrounds, particularly black Afro-Caribbean communities, detained under the law.
blacks are more than four times more likely be detained under the act and more than 10 times more likely to be subject to a community treatment order.
The bill includes the recommendations made by 2018 independent review by Professor Sir Simon Wesselythat analyzed how the Mental Health Law is used.
Welcoming the news that the bill was being introduced, Wessely said, “Conducting pre-legislative scrutiny is a vital step in ensuring the bill meets our ambitious reform plans. By strengthening the rights of patients to influence their care and treatment, and choose who supports them, we can improve people’s experience with mental health services, address today’s significant racial disparities, and combat rising arrest rates.”
The bill also includes proposals to rebalance the threshold for detention, ensuring that decisions must balance risk to the public and therapeutic benefit to the patient, and ensuring that all patients receive a timely plan of care and pathway to care. his high.
It also proposes reducing the use of community treatment orders, which mean people remain supervised in their community and can be sent back to the hospital, and which can include restrictions such as where a person must live.
The Department of Health and Social Care is running a evidence call seeking input on a new 10-year mental health plan and an updated national suicide prevention plan.
Downing Street said work to reform mental health services continued, following a £400m government investment to eradicate outdated sleeping quarters in mental health facilities, although health professionals and others had recently they have also been looking for new investments in mental health services in general.
The pandemic has caused a dramatic increase in the number of people experiencing mental health problemswith 1.6 million waiting for specialized treatment and another 8 million who would benefit from support as they could not enter the waiting list.
