Extracts from Lords repeat of a statement on Mental Health Act Reform - Jan 18
Tuesday, 19 January 2021 08:00
Baroness Thornton (Lab) [V]:...I am sure we all welcome the aim to
improve how people with learning difficulties and autism are
treated under the Act. Will there be limitations to the scope for
detention where their needs are due to learning disabilities or
autism alone? Do the Government accept all the review’s
recommendations on advocacy and tribunals, including the funding
that will be required to implement them? These are key reforms
affecting people’s liberty and will play an...Request free trial
(Lab)
[V]:...I am sure we all welcome the aim to improve how
people with learning difficulties and autism are treated under the Act. Will
there be limitations to the scope for detention where their needs
are due to learning disabilities or autism alone? Do the Government accept
all the review’s recommendations on advocacy and tribunals,
including the funding that will be required to implement them?
These are key reforms affecting people’s liberty and will play an
important part in making other improvements come about...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department
of Health and Social Care ()
(Con):...Likewise, on learning difficulties and
autism noble Lords will remember
that we have had powerful and moving debates in this Chamber in the
last few months on that very issue. I reassure the noble Baroness,
Lady Thornton, that we note Sir Simon’s recommendation in his
report for a 28-day cap on the detention of those with learning
difficulties and autism It is just not good enough
for those with learning difficulties and autism to be detained under a
Mental Health Act restraint for an interminable period. That point
is thoroughly recognised, and the report’s recommendations are
extremely well made...
(Lab) [V]: My Lords, while I welcome the
White Paper, it is unlikely that the legislation will be enacted
until 2023. Many reforms can be made before that date to implement
some of Sir Simon’s recommendations, including the development of
community facilities to support people with learning disabilities
and autism so as to hugely reduce the
use of in-patient beds and, crucially, alternative provision to
finally stop the use of prison and police custody suites as places
of safety. I therefore press the Minister again to assure the House
that sufficient capital funds are available within the NHS
long-term plan to implement such key recommendations.
(CB)
[V]: My Lords, Sir Simon found excessive use of
restrictive practices in mental health institutions. Many of us
will be familiar with the appalling case of Bethany, the autistic
teenager who spent three years in what can be described only as a
cell, in an appallingly inhumane regime that kept her locked up in
solitary confinement and with no physical contact with other
people. Only when her father went to court did she escape, and she
is now living happily in an open-plan institution. Can the Minister
assure us that such treatment will never be condoned again? We
cannot wait for legislation on this.
(Con):
My Lords, I certainly do not condone that treatment in any
circumstances, but I acknowledge the noble Baroness’s point: there
have been some instances in the past—reasonably rare but
consistent—where those with autism and learning difficulties
have been subject to the most inappropriate regimes and where a
completely different type of support, therapy and accommodation
from the kind found in mental health institutions was needed. The
campaign to which the noble Baroness alluded is entirely right and
we are moving quickly to address those points.
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