Long-term detention of people with autism and people with learning disabilities should be banned, a committee of MPs said.
Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who chairs the House of Commons Health and Human Services Committee, said it was a “national disgrace” that “far too” people were still being held.
In a new report, the committee said individuals may be subjected to “intolerable treatment” at hospital establishments, including “abusive restrictive practices”.
He added that people with autism and people with learning disabilities can be held for “long periods of time in institutions that do not meet their needs” and kept away from family and friends, and she wants all of them. new long-term admissions to institutions are prohibited except for medico-legal cases.
The committee warned that the “fatal misconception” that people are treated as if their conditions are illnesses rather than a fundamental part of their identity means that they often develop mental or physical illnesses which are then used to justify their illness. detention.
He added that there is a “shocking” average length of stay of six years in assessment and treatment units.
The Committee also wants the evaluation and treatment units to be closed within two years, and “immediate action on the use of restrictive practices by staff”.
He says some descriptions of the use of physical restraint and long-term segregation in inpatient settings are not “fit for a 21st century health system” and that tailored community care should be. offered instead of individuals detained in hospitals.
When Sharon Clarke’s seventeen-year-old autistic son had mental health issues, she called a crisis line.
She thought Ryan would be out of the hospital in “a few weeks,” but that was 15 years ago. Ryan, now 32, remains in a forensic psychiatry unit more commonly used to house criminals.
He is one of the approximately 2000 people with autism or…
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-07-13 00:05:00
