Care boards and councils must be pressed to provide community services so people with autism and learning disabilities avoid long-term hospital detentions.
That’s the view of the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on the draft Mental Health Bill.
Baroness Buscombe has called for the creation of a mental health commissioner for patients, families and carers
It has been looking at whether the Bill would ensure fewer people with autism and learning disabilities endure long-term stays in mental health hospitals.
Community care a focal point
Getting people with autism and learning disabilities out of long-stay hospitals and living in their own community is a focal point for campaigners and families.
NHS statistics show there were 2,005 people with learning disabilities and autism held in mental health hospitals at the end of November 2022.
Successive governments have consistently missed targets to reduce the numbers. The figures have fallen by just over 30 per cent from 2,885 in March 2015.
Racial inequalities
The Joint Committee report also said “unacceptable and inexcusable failures on racial inequalities” must also be tackled.
It found community treatment orders for black and ethnic minority patients under the Mental Health Act are around 11 times higher than for whites.
The UK Government has said the draft Mental Health Bill will ensure autism and learning disabilities can no longer be used as conditions that justify long-term hospital stays.
Call for creation of mental health commissioner
Baroness Buscombe chairs the Joint Committee.
In a statement, she said she wanted to see the creation of a new “mental health commissioner to monitor the implementation of the Bill and to speak up for patients, families and carers”.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it would “review the committee’s recommendations and respond in due course”.
Autism Eye contacted the Local Government Association for a comment, but it did not respond.
Related:
- Bill aims to stop hospital for autism
- New laws will target long-stay hospitals
- Long-stay hospitals ‘must close’
- Dismay at inaction over assessment units
- Scandal of decade-long hospital stays
- ‘Abject failure’ of hospital plan
- Huge surge in hospitals using restraint
- Social workers aim to cut hospital stays
- Still stuck in mental health hospitals
- Spotlight on hospital care
- Families fight detention ‘scandal’
Published: 27 January 2023
