Mental health issues see people sectioned nearly 700 times in the region last year

MENTAL health issues led to people in Coventry and Warwickshire being sectioned nearly 700 times last year.

There were 665 detentions under the Mental Health Act in the Coventry and Warwickshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) area in 2018/19.

This was up from 640 detentions in 2017/18, but down from 700 in 2016/17, according to figures released by NHS Digital.

Under the Act, people with a mental disorder may be formally detained in hospital (or ‘sectioned’) in the interests of their own health or safety, or for the protection of other people.

The rate of detentions in the STP area was lower than the England rate of 89.9 per 100,000 people at 71.9 per 100,000 people.

At the end of March this year, there were 255 people who were subject to treatment under the Act through Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust.

The number was up from 220 subject to treatment under the Act at the end of March 2018, according to the figures published by NHS Digital.

This included 200 people who were sectioned, and 60 people who were subject to Community Treatment Orders (CTOs).

CTOs are where people are treated in the community but subject to recall to hospital for assessment and/or treatment.

Figures are rounded to the nearest five.

Vicki Nash, head of policy and campaigns at Mind, the mental health charity, said the newly released figures were evidence the mental health system isn’t working.

She said: People aren’t getting the help they need, when they need it.

“Racial disparity in the use of the Act is also an ongoing injustice, with Black people still four times more likely to be detained far more likely to be subject to the Act’s most coercive powers.

“The NHS must better promote race equality in mental health services and in the use of the Act through concrete commitments, including to build relationships with local communities.

“We know that more people are struggling to access services, more people reaching crisis point and more people are facing racial injustice in the mental health system.

“Detentions will only start reducing once people have high quality, culturally relevant and timely mental healthcare at the point they ask for it. For this to become a reality services need to be adequately funded and properly staffed, and the Government must take the Mental Health Act review forward as a matter of urgency.”

Across England, there were 49,988 new detentions in 2018/19, of which 30,478 took place at the point of admission to hospital.

A further 15,834 occurred following admission, with 3,504 detentions following a place of safety order and 199 after the revocation of a CTO.

A place of safety order is when police use their powers under the Act to remove a person who is in a public place and is apparently a danger to himself or to other people, somewhere they may be assessed by a doctor.

National figures are incomplete due to variations in the amount of information submitted by individual providers.

However, after accounting for data quality, NHS Digital estimates the number of detentions has risen by two per cent in a year.

Detentions of those aged 15 and under are growing fastest, rising 15 per cent from 378 in 2017/18 to 433 in 2018/19.

This was followed by the 18 to 34 age group, with a six per cent rise from 115,121 detention in 2017/18 to 15,991 in 2018/19.

This age group was also the most likely to be sectioned, with 128.9 detentions per 100,000 people.

Detention rates for black people (288.7 detentions per 100,000 population) were more than four times those than those for white people (71.8 per 100,000 population).

NHS Digital analysis shows 15.5 per cent of people detained under the Act in 2018/19 were detained more than once during this period, up from 15.4 per cent in 2017/18.

Just 2.5 per cent of people were detained more than twice, up from 2.4 per cent a year before.