• Home
  • About Us
  • Consultancy & Training
  • Coaching
  • Counselling
  • Online Courses
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Resources
  • Contact
    • Login
Voxel HubVoxel Hub
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Consultancy & Training
  • Coaching
  • Counselling
  • Online Courses
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Login

Mental Health & Wellbeing

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Mental Health & Wellbeing
  • The reform of the U.K. Mental Health Act

The reform of the U.K. Mental Health Act

  • Posted by Sylwia Korsak
  • Categories Mental Health & Wellbeing
  • Date January 13, 2021
  • Comments 0 comment

Announced today, the update of the Mental Health Act in the U.K. means significant improvements in supporting the rights and freedoms of people struggling with mental health challenges. Let’s look at the hey areas of the announced changes:

At the heart of the proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act is greater choice and autonomy for patients in a mental health crisis, ensuring the act’s powers are used in the least restrictive way, that patients receive the care they need to help them recover and all patients are viewed and treated as individuals.

These reforms aim to tackle the racial disparities in mental health services, better meet the needs of people with learning disabilities and autism and ensure appropriate care for people with serious mental illness within the criminal justice system.

The announced committment is long overdue, we have waited for this for over 30 years now, but it is good to see it in place. Here are more details:

introducing statutory ‘advance choice documents’ to enable people to express their wishes and preferences on their care when they are well, before the need arises for them to go into hospital

implementing the right for an individual to choose a nominated person who is best placed to look after their interests under the act if they aren’t able to do so themselves

expanding the role of independent mental health advocates to offer a greater level of support and representation to every patient detained under the act

piloting culturally appropriate advocates so patients from all ethnic backgrounds can be better supported to voice their individual needs

ensuring mental illness is the reason for detention under the act, and that neither autism nor a learning disability are grounds for detention for treatment of themselves

improving access to community-based mental health support, including crisis care, to prevent avoidable detentions under the act – this is already underway backed by £2.3 billion a year as part of the NHS Long Term Plan

We also hope to see improvement in the area of racial bias:

Decisive action will be taken to help tackle the disproportionate number of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities detained under the Mental Health Act. Black people are over 4 times more likely to be detained under the act and over 10 times more likely to be subject to a community treatment order.

A national organisational competency framework for NHS mental health trusts will be introduced, referred as the ‘Patient and Carers Race Equality Framework’ (PCREF). The PCREF will be a practical tool which enables mental health trusts to understand what steps it needs to take to improve black, Asian and minority ethnic communities’ mental health outcomes.

Improved culturally appropriate advocacy services will be piloted where needed, so people from BAME backgrounds can be better supported by people who understand their needs.

There will also be improvements in treatment of people on Autistic spectrum and with learning disabilities:

The reforms will also change the way people with a learning disability and autistic people are treated in law by recognising a mental health inpatient setting is often not the best place to meet their specific needs.

The proposal sets out that neither learning disability nor autism should be considered a mental disorder for which someone can be detained for treatment under section 3 of the act. Instead, people with a learning disability or autistic people could only be detained for treatment if a co-occurring mental health condition is identified by clinicians.

Changes will be made in the criminal justice system:

The benefits of reform will also be felt by people with serious mental illness within the criminal justice system. A 28-day time limit is being proposed to speed up the transfer of prisoners to hospital, ending unnecessary delays and ensuring they get the right treatment at the right time.

The government also commits to ending the outdated practice of using prisons as ‘places of safety’ for defendants with acute mental illness. Instead, judges will work with medical professionals to ensure defendants can always be taken directly to a healthcare setting from court.

Victims of all mentally disordered offenders will now have the option of being assigned a dedicated victim liaison officer to keep them informed of key developments in the offender’s case, including when the patient is discharged.

These are the key points and of course it will be important to see how those changes are going to be implemented. It is however a great step towards better mental health provision in the U.K.

For additional documentation of the consultation process check out this website.

Photo by Deniz Fuchidzhiev on Unsplash

Tag:law, mental health, UK

  • Share:
author avatar
Sylwia Korsak

I am a senior social media and digital wellbeing consultant, coach and counsellor.

Since 2004 I am helping individuals, organisations and brands articulate their stories with the help of the social web and find humanity in the digital world.

I am a word of mouth marketer advising nonprofits and commercial brands on informed, realistic, sustainable digital strategies. I help organisations and brands develop sustainable digital wellbeing strategies. I am a personal adviser, coach and counsellor working with individuals wishing to identify, plan and develop their digital wellbeing goals. I am supporting clients in understanding the growing range of choices related to their online activities and in making decisions benefiting their personal careers and wellbeing.

I offer a wide range of digital services, so please take a moment to learn more about my experience, but also check out the testimonials from my past and current clients. I am always happy to chat about digital wellbeing and social media so feel free to get in touch for an initial consultation. I practice what I preach. I am a blogger passionate about digital and wellbeing. I take visual notes about my hobbies: coffee and allotment gardening. I record inspiring moments in my personal photo notebook. I am a founder of BarcampNFP and BigosUK.

I currently work mainly in digital wellbeing and mental health. I am a Community Champion at OTR Bristol, a social movement for young people’s mental health (the oldest youth counselling service in the Bristol area). I volunteer for Bristol Mind and other local mental health charities.

Previous post

"Willful Blindness" by Margaret Heffernan - book review
January 13, 2021

Next post

Congratulations to Lewis!
January 13, 2021

You may also like

20210118BrewMonday
Brew Monday – supporting Samaritans today and every day
18 January, 2021
Screenshot 2021-01-13 at 21.28.00
The power of rest
14 January, 2021
noaa-3REXd_cRwns-unsplash
“Silence: In The Age of Noise” by Erling Kagge – book review
8 January, 2021

Leave A Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Consultancy & Training
  • Coaching
  • Counselling
  • Online Courses
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Resources
  • Contact

Blog Categories

  • Business & Leadership
  • Digital Communication
  • Digital Content
  • Digital Creativity
  • Digital Identity
  • Digital Literacy
  • Digital Tech & Innovation
  • Digital Wellbeing
  • Events
  • Family
  • Founder's thoughts
  • Mental Health & Wellbeing
  • Our Advisory Board
  • Our Events
  • Our Interviews
  • Our News
  • Our Services
  • Our Tips
  • Personal Development

BLOG CALENDAR

January 2021
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Dec    

BLOG ARCHIVES

Latest Courses

Digital Wellbeing Primer (coming soon)

Digital Wellbeing Primer (coming soon)

Free
Exploring FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) (Coming Soon)

Exploring FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) (Coming Soon)

£39.00
Reflective Writing in the Digital Age (coming soon)

Reflective Writing in the Digital Age (coming soon)

£39.00

Recommended Links

Our collections
Digital Wellbeing Voices on Twitter
Digital Wellbeing book list on Amazon 
Digital wellbeing on digital platforms
Digital Wellbeing course by Google
Digital Wellbeing course by the University of York
Digital Wellbeing Google
Digital Wellbeing Android 
Digital Wellbeing Apple
Digital Wellbeing Facebook
Digital Wellbeing Vodaphone
Internet Matters by Virgin Media
Digital Literacy courses by BT
Research and news
Centre for Humane Technology
Oxford Internet Institute 
BPS Cyberpsychology
Cyberpsychology EU
Cyberpsychology ORG News
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Other related journals
Pew Research (Internet)
We Are Social blog 
Digital parenting
Digital Wellbeing Childnet
Digital Wellbeing UK Safer Internet Centre
Common Sense Media
Parenting for a Digital Future
EU Kids Online
Danah Boyd Blog
Contextual Safeguarding Network
UK wellbeing research
GOV.UK 5 Ways of Wellbeing Report 2008
NEF 5 Ways of Wellbeing Report 2008 
NEF 5 Ways of Wellbeing – New Evidence 2011
NEF Wellbeing blog
State of the Nation 2019
Happy City
Thriving Places Index
Happiness Pulse
Local wellbeing indicators 
Digital Wellbeing for Academia
Digital wellbeing blogs
Positive Computing
Mind Matters News
Tech Happy Life
Hero Wellbeing Blog
What Works Wellbeing
Positive psychology 
Positive Psychology Center
Network of Wellbeing
Positivity Test
VIA Institute of Character

Copyright © Voxel Hub 2019-2020 // Privacy Policy // Cookie Policy

No apps configured. Please contact your administrator.

Login with your site account

No apps configured. Please contact your administrator.

Lost your password?

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.

For our full Privacy Policy click here.

Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.