Children for years With autism languish in prison-style cells
CHILDREN and adults with autism and learning difficulties are kept in prisonstyle cells for months or years, in what an ex-health minister says is “an intolerable abuse of human rights”. Many are sedated with “chemical cosh” drugs used to treat the seriously mentally ill, while their families say there is no proof they are needed.
In some cases patients are held with murderers and rapists, families claim.
Former health minister Norman Lamb launches a campaign next week to end the scandal in which children and young adults are often sectioned under the Mental Health Act after uncontrolled or self-harming episodes.
They are removed from their parents and left in about 100 private and NHS assessment and treatment units (ATUs) in England.
Some private units charge hundreds of thousands a year per patient. The annual detention bill, estimated to be around £500million, with the majority going to seven private providers.
This is despite a government pledge in 2015 to rehouse 35-50 per cent of the estimated 2,350 people with autism or severe learning disabilities into community housing by March 2019.
The latest official figures show that since this pledge was made, only 250 patients have been discharged.
Last week Mr Lamb met NHS England’s national disabilities director Ray James to demand urgent action.
The Liberal Democrat MP said: “Keeping these people locked up in cells is an intolerable, fundamental breach of human rights. Many are also forcibly given anti-psychotic drugs which dull their senses and make them sleep for long periods.
“Tragically many families do not know how to fight the system and so these people are just forgotten.”
One woman has been held for as long as 18 years and another young man for 11 years.
NHS Digital figures show 58 per cent (1,355 patients) in the units have had a total length of stay of more than two years and 36 per cent (850) have been incarcerated for more than five years.
Care and treatment reviews should be carried out every six months. But the data shows 43 per cent of inpatients had not had a review in the past six months and 22 per cent had not had one for more than a year.
Forty-two per cent of inpatients have no hospital leaving date planned.
The number of children in these units has also doubled from 110 in March 2015 to 250 in October this year.
The Government’s promise to review and rehouse patients was triggered by revelations of systematic abuse and assault at Winterbourne View assessment and treatment unit near Bristol.
A BBC documentary in 2011 showed people with learning disabilities and
challenging behaviour being repeatedly assaulted. In one case staff gave a patient punishment showers, left her outside in near-zero temperatures and poured mouthwash into her eyes.
Parents are often barred from speaking out by secretive family courts.
Earlier this year an NHS probe found that 28 per cent of learning-disabled people die before 50, compared with five per cent of the general population.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We are working to reduce the numbers of people with learning disabilities or autism in mental health hospitals, while improving community support so they only go to hospital when absolutely necessary and return home as soon as their treatment has finished. We are committed to ensuring care in England is high quality, safe and compassionate.
“To protect the public and hold providers to account, we set up the Care Quality Commission and invested it with enforcement powers to crack down on poor quality care or abuse.
“The Health Secretary has asked the commission to undertake an in-depth review of the use of restraint, segregation and prolonged seclusion in health and care settings, including ATUs,” the department added.