Health Management and Policy Alert

Reforming the Mental Health Act

Department of Health and Social Care -
An independent review of the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA), published in 2017 , looked at how it’s used and made suggestions for improvement. It concluded that the MHA does not always work as well as it should for patients, their families and their carers. This white paper proposes a range of changes, based on four principles that have been developed with people with lived experience of the MHA. They are: choice and autonomy; least restriction; therapeutic benefit; and the person as an individual. The consultation on these proposals closes on 21 April 2021.

• Consultation
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

Unlimited potential: report of the Commission of Gender Stereotypes in Early Childhood

Fawcett Society - 
This report warns that harmful gender stereotypes are significantly limiting children’s potential, causing problems such as lower self-esteem in girls and poorer reading skills in boys. It finds that stereotypes contribute towards the mental health crisis among children and young people, are at the root of girls’ problems with body image and eating disorders, higher male suicide rates and violence against women and girls.

• Report
• Press release

State of the nation: understanding public attitudes to the early years

Royal Foundation -
The insights contained within this report highlight the need to help people understand the importance of the early years. The report suggests that parents and carers need more support and advice to ensure good mental health and wellbeing as they raise young children.

• Report
• Royal Foundation - press release

Monitoring the Mental Health Act in 2019/20: the Mental Health Act in the Covid-19 pandemic

Care Quality Commission (CQC) - 

Monitoring the Mental Health Act is the CQC's annual report on the use of the Mental Health Act (MHA). It looks at how providers are caring for patients, and whether patients' rights are being protected. This year's annual report puts a specific focus on the impact that the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has had on patients detained under the MHA, and on the services that care for and treat them.

• Report
• More detail

Finding our own way home: a ‘big conversation’

Housing LIN -
This report, jointly written by the Housing LIN and Learning Disability England, outlines the key results from research conducted into the housing opportunities and blockages for people with a learning disability and/or autism.

• Report
• Housing LIN - publications

Staying mentally well: winter plan 2020 to 2021

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - 
This plan sets out the support that will be in place in the immediate term to help support individuals to stay well during the second wave of the coronavirus and winter months ahead.

• Guidance

Mental health for all?

Commission for Equality in Mental Health - 

This final report of the Commission finds that mental health inequalities mirror wider economic and social inequalities. Wealth and power inequalities put at risk the mental health of people experiencing poverty, racial injustice and discrimination. This creates sharp social divisions, meaning that many groups of people face two or three times the risk of mental ill health. Yet the same groups of people find it harder to get help for their mental health, and in some cases also get poorer outcomes when they do. This report highlights, however, that effective action is possible. It sets out what a system designed for equality would look like, and how communities, local organisations, public services and national government can work together to generate change at scale.

 

• Report
• Press release

Covid-19 and the Northern powerhouse: tackling inequalities for UK health and productivity

Northern Health Science Alliance -
According to this report, the North of England’s economy has been hit harder than the rest of the country during the Covid-19 pandemic. It estimates the economic cost of the increased mortality in the North during the pandemic at £6.86bn and the reductions in mental health in the region due to the pandemic at around £5bn a year.

• Report
• Northern Health Science Alliance - news

How has Covid-19 and the associated lockdown measures affected mental health and wellbeing in the UK?

What Works Wellbeing -
This briefing provides insights into how mental health conditions have changed and what the risk factors are that need to be recognised when supporting people’s mental health.

• Briefing
• What Works Wellbeing - blogs

Out of sight – who cares?: a review of restraint, seclusion and segregation for autistic people, and people with a learning disability and/or mental health condition

Care Quality Commission -
This report tells the story of restrictive practices from the perspective of people who have experienced it first-hand and looks at how long-term segregation was used. The review finds that the environment of mental health hospitals was often not therapeutic. It also finds that some people were admitted without proper assessment and did not have an assessment of their needs while in hospital, resulting in the lack of a clear care and treatment plan.

• Report
• Care Quality Commission - publications