Some mental health trusts screening all patients for radicalisation

New research by the University of Warwick has found that the line between mental illness and radicalisation is becoming increasingly blurred, with four NHS mental health trusts subjecting all patients to blanket screening for radicalisation.

According to the NHS website, the Prevent programme is ‘designed to safeguard people in a similar way to safeguarding processes to protect people from gang activity, drug abuse, and physical and sexual abuse’.

The research report, titled Counterterrorism in the NHS: Evaluating Prevent Duty Safeguarding by Midlands Healthcare Providers, surveyed 329 NHS staff on Prevent anti-radicalisation measures in the health service, finding that less than half of the staff surveyed believe that Prevent strategy belongs in the NHS or that it is intended as a safeguarding measure.

Of the 49 NHS trusts that replied, four admitted that they assessed every patient for signs of radicalisation, while the others reported that they conducted radicalisation risk assessments on patients they had specific concerns about.

Currently, NHS trusts are obliged to train all staff to report patients or staff they suspect of being radicalised to safeguarding teams. The research found that some patients were referred to the Prevent programme for watching Arabic TV or going on pilgrimage to Mecca. In fact, 70 per cent of NHS staff surveyed said they would be likely or very likely to raise a Prevent query on the basis of someone owning anarchist or Islamic philosophy books.