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OVER HALF of people compulsorily detained under the Mental Health Act are black according to new published data.

The shocking statistics taken from the Mental Health Minimum Data Set shows that of 31.8 percent of service users receiving care on inpatient units detained involuntarily, 53.8 per cent were black.

Voluntary group, Ethnic Health Initiative (EHI) say that the over-representation of certain black and minority ethnic groups within inpatient services is not new.

The results of the 2009 ‘Count Me In’ census, which has just been published under the Care Quality Commission 2010, found that 22 percent of all patients were from a minority ethnic group compared with 20 percent for the 2005 census.

The rates of people from ‘other black’ and ‘black Caribbean’ groups detained under Section 37/41 has remained higher then average for the last five years. And the rates of admission or detention have not reduced since 2005 for black and minority ethnic groups.

On May 24 the EHI will host a conference aimed at discussing the over representation of black people and why these rates have increased. They will also been exploring possible solutions to see this number reduced, with much focus on whether the black community should be making stronger efforts to address institutional racism.

Conference co-ordinator Ahmed Qureshi told The Voice-Online that it was important for people to attend if they wanted to make a difference.

“At the Ethnicity and Use of the Mental Health Act conference we will be exploring and focusing on solutions about why people from certain backgrounds are over represented in mental health institutes and what we can do to reduce this number as a community.” Said Qureshi.

Guest speakers on the day will include Professor Sashi Sashidharan who is the honorary Professor and Co-director of Centre for Research in Ethnicity & Mental Health and Melba Wilson OBE from Mental Health Equalities.

Published: 17 May 2010
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