Government needs to show plan for mental health community care, says Labour MP

A Labour MP will urge the Government to set out specifics of how it will provide support to people with autism and learning difficulties when they leave mental health hospitals, sometimes after being there for several years.

Jen Craft said assurances that certain parts of the Government’s Mental Health Bill will only be “switched on” when services are available in the community would be irrelevant without a plan on how to deliver them.

Currently, people with a learning disability or autism can be detained in a mental health hospital without any accompanying mental health condition.

According to the charity Mencap, the average stay in hospital for an inpatient with learning disability and autism is nearly five years. More than 2,000 people with the conditions are in a mental health hospital.

Charities say many of those in the hospitals are there because of a lack of social care and suitable housing.

The Government would change that, meaning they could be treated in the community.

However, the MP for Thurrock has concerns that without a clear timeline of how to get services in place, people could end up not receiving the care they need.

She has tabled an amendment, which will be debated in the Commons on Tuesday, which would force the Government to set out its plans.

Her proposed change has been welcomed by disability charities.

“This is something that needed legislation,” she said. “It is a recognition that a situation where people are detained for sometimes decades, purely from having a learning disability or autism is wrong, but yet still keeps happening.”

She said the number of people who are autistic in those settings is increasing. While the amount with learning disabilities is falling, she believes legislation is needed to stop it from happening.

“This is something that is almost a moral failing of our society, that we continue to do this,” she told the PA news agency.

“So the concern is that those particular legislative powers might not quite reach the point where they’re switched on, and in effect you still have this situation going on in perpetuity.”

She praised large parts of the Mental Health Bill, which was proposed in the House of Lords.

“Some of the stuff they are looking to set out will be excellent,” she said.

Yet Ms Craft continued: “No wants to leave very vulnerable people without support. The real concern that a lot of people, including myself, have is it’s very difficult to know what sufficient community services are, and how we get there.

“That leaves people who are currently detained under these clauses in a kind of limbo, where that can kind of go on indefinitely.”

The community services that could be provided include residential care, live-in carers, or other support workers who can allow people to work, volunteer or attend appointments.

Ms Craft said: “It literally for them, is just having upwards of 10 hours a week to be able to attend medical appointments, and get out of the house, and have that kind of social life, that allows them to re-engage and take steps to make themselves healthy and active.”

She continued that her concern is if a “roadmap” is not set out it could essentially mean it is forgotten by ministers and officials.

Ms Craft’s daughter is disabled, and she said this gave her an awareness of the challenges that they, as well as their parents, families and carers, face.

“This is a group of a relatively small amount of people, who are particularly vulnerable, they’re not particularly an influential or politically eye-catching bunch, and it’s something that when you have a situation that the Government does have, where there are thousands of competing priorities, that they could easily fall right down to the bottom of the agenda, or even fall off it.”

She added: “It really hits, because it’s horrifying to think that your child could end up there, and you can see how that could happen, it’s frightening, and you can see how once they’re in that place it becomes so difficult to get them out again, and that does drive you.”

In a joint statement from Mencap, the National Autistic Society and Challenging Behaviour Foundation, they said: “Once detained, we know people can get trapped for many years and there are countless stories of unspeakable abuse and neglect in mental health hospitals – people have had bones broken, been left covered in bruises and experienced lasting trauma due to brutal and excessive physical restraint and being locked up in solitary confinement for months on end.

“We are urging MPs to support Jen Craft’s amendment, requiring the Government to publish a roadmap for getting sufficient community support in place and switching on these changes as soon as possible.”