The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, Jackie Doyle-Price, says Government would respond to the challenges raised by the CQC report and pending review into mental health care.
The Care Quality Commission report Monitoring the Mental Health Act in 2016/17, looks at how providers are caring for patients, and whether patient’s rights are being protected.
They found:
- 32% (1,034 of 3,253) of care plans reviewed showed no evidence of patient involvement. This was 29% last year.
- 17% (594 of 3,434) showed no evidence of consideration of the patient’s particular needs. This was 10% last year.
- 31% (550 of 1,788) showed no evidence of the patient’s views. In 2015/16, 26% had not been recorded.
- 17% (588 of 3,372) showed no evidence of consideration of the least restrictive options for care. This compares to 10% of records last year.
- 24% (570 of 2,403) showed no evidence of discharge planning, compared with 32% last year.
In our submission to the Mental Health Act review DR UK argued that the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act need a complete overhaul and not simply tweaked.
We argued that:
- People with direct experience of mental health services should be at the heart of any reform
- Current mental health legislation is fundamentally discriminatory and should be completely changed
- Any reform should take account of the recommendations of the UNCRPD committee that current UK legislation which is based on non-consensual, involuntary and compulsory treatment should be repealed and be replaced by legislation in line with the Convention
- There need to be immediate measures put in place to halt the alarming rise in compulsory treatment and detention
- All forms of restraint and seclusion should be eliminated
- The emphasise should be on developing better community services focussed on ensuring people using mental health services can exercise their rights to independent living as outlined in Article 19 of the UNCRPD