Latest news with #MentalHealthAct1983
ITV News
4 days ago
- Health
- ITV News
Mental health inequalities experienced by Black communities in Berkshire explored in new report
A new report has explored the mental health inequalities experienced by Black communities in local services. Mind in Berkshire heard from more than 180 people on several key themes relating to Black people's access to mental health care and support. Between 2021 and 2023, data showed that Black individuals were over three times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white individuals in the county. The charity was commissioned by the local NHS Trust to engage with Black communities to understand the context behind these figures better and identify themes that may help inform future service development. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust said it has a dedicated project aimed at understanding and addressing the issues. The feedback explored themes of: Mind in Berkshire is a partnership between two mental health charities, Oxfordshire Mind and Buckinghamshire Mind. Jess Willsher and Joel Rose, Co-CEOs of Mind in Berkshire said: "This report, a product of our collective efforts, represents an important step in understanding the experiences and perspectives of Black communities in Berkshire about mental health services. "We are grateful to everyone who contributed so openly to this engagement. "It is important that these findings now lead to constructive and collaborative change, across the system, so that disparities are reduced and experiences improve." Dr. Kathryn MacDermott, SRO of the Mental Health Act Detentions Project at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Nationally and within Berkshire, Black people are disproportionately more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. "For the last two years, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have had a dedicated Mental Health Act Detention project which aims to understand and address these longstanding racial inequalities. "We welcome the findings of the report and will continue to work with Mind in Berkshire, embedding learnings from the report within the ongoing work we are doing."
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
High-security hospital 'still needs to improve'
A high-security psychiatric prison is still in need in need of "urgent improvement" the healthcare watchdog has said. Rampton Hospital, run by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) has been rated "requires improvement" by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following an unannounced inspection in March. It was rated "inadequate" in January 2024 with the NHS trust under close scrutiny at the time over its care of Valdo Calocane, who carried out the Nottingham attacks in June 2023. While the CQC found some "clear improvements" had been made at the hospital, it said the trust had work to do "to address staff shortages and support staff". Rampton provides services to people who are detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 and are classified as having a learning disability, mental illness or psychopathic disorder. The latest CQC visit of the site follows a series of inspections that began in June last year as part of a 12-month inspection programme the watchdog has carried out at the wider trust. This was prompted by a special review into NHFT for which the final report was published in August last year. During the latest inspection, staff reported incidents where the hospital wards were "not meting safe staffing levels" with therapies and activities "frequently cancelled" due to staffing shortages. Managers told inspectors the wards "hardly ever" had the right number, experience and gender of staff to keep patients and staff safe. Between 1 March 2024 and 27 February 2025 staff submitted 777 incident forms where the reasons stated were "clinically unsafe staffing", the report said. Sometimes staff were working alone at night, leaving them unable to take breaks and some unhappy they were regularly moved from their ward to support others. Managers told inspectors lone working left staff feeling "anxious, isolated and unsafe". In the report, released on Friday, the CQC said it had found four breaches of regulation during its latest inspection, related to safe care, safeguarding, privacy and dignity, premises and equipment and safe staffing. The watchdog said it had asked the trust to submit a plan showing what action it was taking to address the concerns but added it had provided assurances around staffing concerns. Leaders at the trust showed it had measures in place to to minimise lone working and that the service was in the middle of a large recruitment drive. The CQC added staff at Rampton respected people's privacy and dignity, were responsive to people's needs, provided help, emotional advice and advice when they needed it and worked well with partner organisations. Greg Rielly, CQC deputy director of operations in the Midlands, said: "We have told leaders at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust where urgent improvements are needed. "The service needs to build on the positive areas in our report and focus on making the service safer for people." In April, the BBC revealed the trust announced plans to withdraw from a contract to provide healthcare to prison inmates at seven jails across the East Midlands and an immigration centre. Dr Susan Elcock, executive medical director and deputy chief executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said the service was pleased the CQC reflected on improvements it had made. She added: "We welcome inspections as they are an important way to understand how we are doing and highlight areas where we can do better. "Where the CQC told us we needed to take urgent action, we immediately took steps to address the issues raised. "The CQC noted among the improvements those relating to physical health support and described care plans as personalised and truly reflecting patients' needs. "Whilst we recognise we still have a way to go, I would like to thank colleagues for their work to date. "We are absolutely committed to making further improvements to ensure our services consistently provide excellent, safe care and will continue working closely with the CQC, our colleagues, our patients and their families to achieve this." Follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@ or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210. Troubled NHS trust to quit prison health contract Secure hospital is improving, report says Inspectors take action against psychiatric hospital Care Quality Commission (CQC) Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Leader Live
20-05-2025
- Health
- Leader Live
Mental health reforms ‘mark vital step' in improving care quality
The Health Secretary said attitudes to mental health have 'come on leaps and bounds' since the Mental Health Act 1983 before warning that the law has been 'frozen in time'. Patients would be given a greater say over their care and treatment under the terms of the Mental Health Bill tabled in Parliament. Other changes include ensuring that detention and compulsory treatment are only undertaken when necessary, with provision for more frequent reviews and appeals, and limiting the time people with autism or a learning disability can be detained. The Bill has already been scrutinised in the House of Lords and it cleared its first hurdle in the Commons on Monday evening, when MPs approved it at second reading. Mr Streeting told MPs: 'The measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. When it comes to the treatment of people with serious mental illness, we are falling well short of the humane, compassionate society we aspire to be. 'Patients live 15 to 20 years shorter lives than the average. They are often accommodated far away from their family and loved ones. 'The facilities they are housed in can be completely unsuitable. Lord Darzi found during his investigation last year nearly 20 patients in a mental health facility forced to share two showers and live amongst an infestation of rats and cockroaches. 'Patients are denied the basic choice and agency that is awarded to NHS patients with physical illnesses. People from ethnic minority communities, and especially black African and Caribbean men, are more than three times as likely to be sectioned. 'Although they are very different conditions, people with a learning disability or autistic people are often lumped in with those who have mental illness – reflecting an outdated lack of medical understanding.' Mr Streeting added: 'While attitudes to mental health have come on leaps and bounds in the past four decades, the law has been frozen in time. 'As a result, the current legislation fails to give patients adequate dignity, voice and agency in their care. 'This is despite the fact that patients themselves have consistently told us that being treated humanely and making decisions about their own care plays a vital role in their recovery. 'When patients are detained and treated without any say over what is happening to them, it can have serious consequences for their ongoing health.' Mr Streeting went on: 'This Bill does not solve every problem in our mental health services, but it marks a vital step in our plans to improve the quality of care, combat long-standing inequalities and bring about a stronger focus on prevention and early intervention in mental health.' Mr Streeting said mental health professionals will 'have to consider the risk of serious harm when making decisions to detain' which will ensure 'any risks to the public and patients are considered as part of the assessment process'. He said: 'The vast majority of people with mental illness, including severe mental illness, present no risk to themselves or others and for the majority of people, treatment can be provided without compulsion. 'However, there are some people whose illness, when acutely unwell, can make them a risk to themselves and sometimes to others. 'No one knows this better than the families of Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber or Grace O'Malley Kumar, the victims of Valdo Calocane's violent rampage in Nottingham, whose campaign for justice and accountability has been truly awe inspiring, or indeed the family of Valdo Calocane, who I have also spent time with listening to their experience of feeling badly let down by health services. 'As the independent investigation into the murders found, both he and his victims were failed by the health service, and the families are left to live through the consequences in a level of pain the rest of us could scarcely imagine.' Shadow health secretary Ed Argar welcomed the Bill, saying it's 'not only important but right that our laws are updated to reflect the modern world and the knowledge we have today'. He said: 'I believe it is right that we took the time to get this right. That work updating the Mental Health Act started under the previous government, and we had a commitment in our election manifesto to update the laws in this area, and that is something that has been carried on by the new government, and we continue to believe this is the right thing to do. 'So I want to put on record our in principle, support for the Government in this legislation.' He told MPs the Conservative 'welcome efforts to improve the patient's voice involvement in their own care' through 'greater use of advanced choice documents'. The Bill will undergo further scrutiny at a later date.
Powys County Times
19-05-2025
- Health
- Powys County Times
Mental health reforms ‘mark vital step' in improving care quality
The Government's attempts to modernise mental health legislation will 'not solve every problem' but mark a 'vital step' in improving quality of care, according to Wes Streeting. The Health Secretary said attitudes to mental health have 'come on leaps and bounds' since the Mental Health Act 1983 before warning that the law has been 'frozen in time'. Patients would be given a greater say over their care and treatment under the terms of the Mental Health Bill tabled in Parliament. Other changes include ensuring that detention and compulsory treatment are only undertaken when necessary, with provision for more frequent reviews and appeals, and limiting the time people with autism or a learning disability can be detained. The Bill has already been scrutinised in the House of Lords and it cleared its first hurdle in the Commons on Monday evening, when MPs approved it at second reading. Mr Streeting told MPs: 'The measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. When it comes to the treatment of people with serious mental illness, we are falling well short of the humane, compassionate society we aspire to be. 'Patients live 15 to 20 years shorter lives than the average. They are often accommodated far away from their family and loved ones. 'The facilities they are housed in can be completely unsuitable. Lord Darzi found during his investigation last year nearly 20 patients in a mental health facility forced to share two showers and live amongst an infestation of rats and cockroaches. 'Patients are denied the basic choice and agency that is awarded to NHS patients with physical illnesses. People from ethnic minority communities, and especially black African and Caribbean men, are more than three times as likely to be sectioned. 'Although they are very different conditions, people with a learning disability or autistic people are often lumped in with those who have mental illness – reflecting an outdated lack of medical understanding.' Mr Streeting added: 'While attitudes to mental health have come on leaps and bounds in the past four decades, the law has been frozen in time. 'As a result, the current legislation fails to give patients adequate dignity, voice and agency in their care. 'This is despite the fact that patients themselves have consistently told us that being treated humanely and making decisions about their own care plays a vital role in their recovery. 'When patients are detained and treated without any say over what is happening to them, it can have serious consequences for their ongoing health.' Mr Streeting went on: 'This Bill does not solve every problem in our mental health services, but it marks a vital step in our plans to improve the quality of care, combat long-standing inequalities and bring about a stronger focus on prevention and early intervention in mental health.' Mr Streeting said mental health professionals will 'have to consider the risk of serious harm when making decisions to detain' which will ensure 'any risks to the public and patients are considered as part of the assessment process'. He said: 'The vast majority of people with mental illness, including severe mental illness, present no risk to themselves or others and for the majority of people, treatment can be provided without compulsion. 'However, there are some people whose illness, when acutely unwell, can make them a risk to themselves and sometimes to others. 'No one knows this better than the families of Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber or Grace O'Malley Kumar, the victims of Valdo Calocane's violent rampage in Nottingham, whose campaign for justice and accountability has been truly awe inspiring, or indeed the family of Valdo Calocane, who I have also spent time with listening to their experience of feeling badly let down by health services. 'As the independent investigation into the murders found, both he and his victims were failed by the health service, and the families are left to live through the consequences in a level of pain the rest of us could scarcely imagine.' Shadow health secretary Ed Argar welcomed the Bill, saying it's 'not only important but right that our laws are updated to reflect the modern world and the knowledge we have today'. He said: 'I believe it is right that we took the time to get this right. That work updating the Mental Health Act started under the previous government, and we had a commitment in our election manifesto to update the laws in this area, and that is something that has been carried on by the new government, and we continue to believe this is the right thing to do. 'So I want to put on record our in principle, support for the Government in this legislation.' He told MPs the Conservative 'welcome efforts to improve the patient's voice involvement in their own care' through 'greater use of advanced choice documents'.
Western Telegraph
19-05-2025
- Health
- Western Telegraph
Mental health reforms ‘mark vital step' in improving care quality
The Health Secretary said attitudes to mental health have 'come on leaps and bounds' since the Mental Health Act 1983 before warning that the law has been 'frozen in time'. Patients would be given a greater say over their care and treatment under the terms of the Mental Health Bill tabled in Parliament. While attitudes to mental health have come on leaps and bounds in the past four decades, the law has been frozen in time. As a result, the current legislation fails to give patients adequate dignity, voice and agency in their care Health Secretary Wes Streeting Other changes include ensuring that detention and compulsory treatment are only undertaken when necessary, with provision for more frequent reviews and appeals, and limiting the time people with autism or a learning disability can be detained. The Bill has already been scrutinised in the House of Lords and is being debated in the House of Commons on Monday evening. Mr Streeting told MPs: 'The measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. When it comes to the treatment of people with serious mental illness, we are falling well short of the humane, compassionate society we aspire to be. 'Patients live 15 to 20 years shorter lives than the average. They are often accommodated far away from their family and loved ones. 'The facilities they are housed in can be completely unsuitable. Lord Darzi found during his investigation last year nearly 20 patients in a mental health facility forced to share two showers and live amongst an infestation of rats and cockroaches. 'Patients are denied the basic choice and agency that is awarded to NHS patients with physical illnesses. People from ethnic minority communities, and especially black African and Caribbean men, are more than three times as likely to be sectioned. 'Although they are very different conditions, people with a learning disability or autistic people are often lumped in with those who have mental illness – reflecting an outdated lack of medical understanding.' Mr Streeting added: 'While attitudes to mental health have come on leaps and bounds in the past four decades, the law has been frozen in time. That work updating the Mental Health Act started under the previous government, and we had a commitment in our election manifesto to update the laws in this area, and that is something that has been carried on by the new government, and we continue to believe this is the right thing to do Ed Argar, shadow health secretary 'As a result, the current legislation fails to give patients adequate dignity, voice and agency in their care. 'This is despite the fact that patients themselves have consistently told us that being treated humanely and making decisions about their own care plays a vital role in their recovery. 'When patients are detained and treated without any say over what is happening to them, it can have serious consequences for their ongoing health.' Mr Streeting went on: 'This Bill does not solve every problem in our mental health services, but it marks a vital step in our plans to improve the quality of care, combat long-standing inequalities and bring about a stronger focus on prevention and early intervention in mental health.' Mr Streeting said mental health professionals will 'have to consider the risk of serious harm when making decisions to detain' which will ensure 'any risks to the public and patients are considered as part of the assessment process'. He said: 'The vast majority of people with mental illness, including severe mental illness, present no risk to themselves or others and for the majority of people, treatment can be provided without compulsion. 'However, there are some people whose illness, when acutely unwell, can make them a risk to themselves and sometimes to others. 'No one knows this better than the families of Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber or Grace O'Malley Kumar, the victims of Valdo Calocane's violent rampage in Nottingham, whose campaign for justice and accountability has been truly awe inspiring, or indeed the family of Valdo Calocane, who I have also spent time with listening to their experience of feeling badly let down by health services. 'As the independent investigation into the murders found, both he and his victims were failed by the health service, and the families are left to live through the consequences in a level of pain the rest of us could scarcely imagine.' Shadow health secretary Ed Argar welcomed the Bill, saying it's 'not only important but right that our laws are updated to reflect the modern world and the knowledge we have today'. He said: 'I believe it is right that we took the time to get this right. That work updating the Mental Health Act started under the previous government, and we had a commitment in our election manifesto to update the laws in this area, and that is something that has been carried on by the new government, and we continue to believe this is the right thing to do. 'So I want to put on record our in principle, support for the Government in this legislation.' He told MPs the Conservative 'welcome efforts to improve the patient's voice involvement in their own care' through 'greater use of advanced choice documents'.
