People with learning disabilities and autism ‘locked away’
THOUSANDS OF people with learning disabilities or autism were “locked away behind closed doors” in hospitals in England, despite continued promises to move their care into the community.
Charity Mencap says the national “human rights scandal” must be ended, with patients often stuck on wards for years at a time and subject to over-medication and degrading treatment.
The latest NHS figures show the number of people with learning disabilities or autism admitted to a hospital ward in mental health trusts in England reached 1,995 in February – a three-year high for that month – with 3,465 people on wards at the end of the month.
That is despite a 2015 pledge from NHS England to shut at least 35 per cent of inpatient beds by February 2018 and move people back into the community where carers would support them to “live healthy, safe and rewarding lives”.
The commitment followed a 2011 episode of the BBC’s Panorama, which aired undercover footage of staff at Gloucestershire’s Winterbourne View Hospital physically and psychologically abusing their vulnerable patients.
But the minimum target has been missed for the third year running, with NHS England now aiming for a 50 per cent reduction on 2015 levels by 2024 instead.
According to Mencap, 28 of England’s 48 Transforming Care Partnerships – the collaborative organisations set up to prevent people being sent to inpatient units – missed their 35 per cent reduction target at the end of March, while NHS England as a whole was around 300 beds away from meeting the goal. Stephen Andrade-Martinez, 25, from London, spent six years in mental health units after he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act, aged 18.
His mother Leo Andrade says her son, who is profoundly autistic, suffered from unexplained injuries, was over-medicated, and stuck indoors for months at a time.
She said: “He was totally drugged up, he was catatonic. It was just horrendous.”
Mencap chief executive Edel Harris said disabled people “locked away behind closed doors” are being forgotten in the coronavirus crisis.
An NHS spokeswoman said supporting people with a learning disability is a priority.
It added that the number of people in hospital had reduced by a third since 2015.