News | Tuesday, 26th January 2021
New research supports government reforms tackling mental health race disparities
The experiences of black men in mental health settings will take focus in project
The experiences of black men detained in mental health settings will be focused on in a new research project seeking to address racial disparities for those ‘sectioned’ under the Mental Health Act.
The results of a 2018 independent review of the Mental Health Act (1983) showed black British people are more than four times more likely than white British people to be detained under the act.
The Mental Health Act covers the assessment, treatment and rights of people with a mental health disorder. Under this act a person can be detained, or ‘sectioned’, and treated without their agreement if they are at risk of harm to themselves or others.
The disproportionate use of the act to detain British men of African and Caribbean heritage is one of the key areas of focus in the government’s recently announced landmark reforms.
The reforms, the most significant changes to mental health law in nearly 40 years, seek to deliver parity between mental and physical health services, put patients’ views at the centre of their care, and tackle the disproportionate detention of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.
Manchester Metropolitan researchers, led by Professor of Mental Health Joy Duxbury OBE, will work with black men detained under the Mental Health Act and develop an approach to reduce detention rates and improve their experiences.
Improving experience
The project, titled ‘ImprovE-ACT’ is part of a £3-million group of mental health research projects funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme, aiming to reduce the number of compulsory hospital admissions for people with mental health conditions and improve the experiences of patients and their families and friends.
Researchers will use creative and inclusive approaches, such as video stories and sharing events, to gain meaningful views of affected men and their families. Information, as well as views from professionals such as mental health professionals and social workers and the police, will be used to develop an intervention to reduce detention rates and improve the experiences of black Afro-Caribbean men. This will then be tested for feasibility with police forces when using their powers of detention included under sections 135 and 136 of the Mental Health Act.
Professor Joy Duxbury OBE, lead researcher of the ImprovE-ACT project, said: "Given ongoing concerns about the high rates of detention of vulnerable individuals and associated trauma for them and their families, this has the potential to be a crucial piece of research.
“We hope to co-create an authentic and effective intervention that will be produced by and for those most affected in a meaningful way. Most importantly we need to ensure that the voice of previously silenced communities is heard.”
