Long-term hospital stays should be banned for people with autism and learning disabilities.
That’s the view of MPs on the UK’s Health and Social Care Committee.
Steven Neary with dad Mark. Neary urges families to use personal budgets to manage living arrangements
Committee chair Jeremy Hunt said it’s a “national shame” that ten years on from Winterbourne View more than 2,000 are still in mental health hospitals.
Hunt said the “voluntary approach to reducing the numbers has failed” and “long-term admissions” should “be banned”.
‘No consequence for failure’
Steve Scown is chief executive of Dimensions, a support organisation for people with learning difficulties and autism.
Scown is calling for urgent action. He said: “There is a critical shortage of community-based crisis resources to help to prevent admissions, patients are admitted without discharge plans and funding arrangements further disincentivise discharge.
“Concerningly, there is still no consequence for those responsible for this failure, in stark contrast to those failed by the system.”
Long-term hospital stays average six years
The average stay in the hospitals, otherwise known as assessment and treatment units (ATUs), is now six years.
There has been criticism of the facilities for a reliance on drugging, restraining and secluding people.
Winterbourne View was a hospital in Bristol that was engulfed in scandal after a BBC Panorama documentary exposed abuse.
More than 2,000 still in hospitals
The latest statistics show there are 2,075 people with learning disabilities and autism in hospitals.
The government aims to cut this to about 1,440 by 2023/24.
The committee said ATUs should be replaced by “person-centred services”, admitting people for short periods close to home.
‘Use personal budgets’
Parent campaigner Mark Neary feels families could reduce numbers in hospitals through personal budgets.
Neary, 62, got a personal budget to manage autistic son Steven’s care. Steven is now thriving in his own home with support.
Neary, a therapist from Cowley, London, saw his 31-year-old son held in a long-stay hospital for a year from December 2009.
He said managing a direct payment from a local council allows families “some sort of control”.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the number of patients in hospitals has fallen by around 30 per cent in recent years.
Also, the Mental Health Act White Paper proposes limiting the scope for people who do not have a mental health condition to be detained.
Related:
- Long-stay hospitals ‘must close’
- Dismay at inaction over assessment units
- Nearly 50 dead in long-stay hospitals
- Scandal of decade-long hospital stays
- ‘Abject failure’ of hospital plan
- Independent medics sent into hospital
- Hospital placed in special measures
- Huge surge in hospitals using restraint
- Social workers aim to cut hospital stays
- Hospital brought out of special measures
- Still stuck in mental health hospitals
- Spotlight on hospital care
- Families fight detention ‘scandal’
Published: 21 July 2021
