Mental Health Act to detain people in hospital overused

Detention under the Mental Health Act has become an overused last resort, according to a survey of mental health professionals carried out by the University of York.

According to the research, based on interviews and a national survey with Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs), factors including overstretched mental health services and a deterioration in social structures are leading to increasing numbers of people being detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.

In considering why the number of people admitted to hospital against their will is increasing, AMHPs cited: a significant increase in demand for mental health services which has vastly outstripped supply; an increase in the social stresses faced by people – such as difficulty accessing benefits and problems associated with housing, addiction and social isolation – which is felt to be having a considerable negative impact on the mental health of the population; and a reduction in the effectiveness of hospital admissions to support people during mental health crises. This was felt to be due in part, to an increase in psychiatric wards discharging patients prematurely due to pressure on a finite number of inpatient beds.  

AMHPs in the study advocated for investment in resources such as preventative services which promote greater social inclusion and interaction to help reduce the number of people experiencing mental health crises. They also recommended changes to acute services such as increasing the numbers of non-medical and crisis houses, to offer an alternative to hospital admission for those in crisis.

A new report out by the Care Quality Commission last month showed that the use of the Mental Health Act continues to rise with around 50,000 detentions to psychiatric hospitals made under the Act last year.

Michael Bonnet, author of the study, said: “Our respondents in the study viewed the problem of rising detention rates as symptomatic of a bigger issue: an unprecedented and unsustainable demand for mental health services, caused in part by a deterioration in the social structures that help people to stay well, leaving services perilously stretched at precisely the point they are most needed. Our research concluded that, within this context, use of the Mental Health Act has become an overused last resort, not by design, but by necessity.”