Admissions to hospital under the Mental Health Act rise by 30% over 10 years
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《英国医生杂志》
Mental health services in the United Kingdom are in crisis, with more people than ever being detained in hospital under compulsory orders, says a report.
Admissions to hospital under the Mental Health Act have risen by nearly 30% in the past decade in England, figures from the Department of Health show. According to a report from three national mental health charities, Rethink, Sane, and the Zito Trust, this figure is a sorrowful reflection of the current state of hospital care for people with psychiatric illness.
The report, Behind Closed Doors, says that despite 650 national strategies, guidelines, and frameworks issued by the government over the past five years, little progress has been made in the care of people with serious mental illnesses.
Postcode prescribing continues to flourish throughout the United Kingdom, says the report, with many patients still failing to receive modern drugs despite rulings from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in 2002 and 2003 that atypical antipsychotic drugs should be used as firstline drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Of the 20 000 or so people sectioned under the Mental Health Act each year, one in five are readmitted within three months of leaving hospital, confirming the so called "revolving door" of acute mental health care.
Feedback from patients also suggests that their experiences were so negative that they would do anything to avoid being readmitted. In particular, they complained about the lack of basic necessities, privacy, dignity, and comfort and of being bored. They also said they were given inadequate information about their condition and excluded from the planning of their care.
Paul Corry, head of policy and campaigns at the charity Rethink, blames the lack of effective community mental health services for the rise in section rates. As a result, vulnerable people are left untreated and unsupported.
Majorie Wallace of Sane believes that the state of hospital wards deters people from being admitted voluntarily. "There can be no freedom of choice or chance of better treatment while the acute wards remain in many places filthy and overcrowded, and staff demoralised. It is no wonder that people who are disturbed or depressed will only stay in hospital if sectioned, and that doctors are forced to take the risk of not admitting people who may urgently need inpatient care.
"There should be no need to have people detained against their will if the conditions in which they received voluntary treatment were made tolerable and humane. So dreadful are many wards that patients say—and psychiatrists confirm—that the only way they will stay in hospital is if they are sectioned under the Mental Health Act," she said.(London Zosia Kmietowicz)
Admissions to hospital under the Mental Health Act have risen by nearly 30% in the past decade in England, figures from the Department of Health show. According to a report from three national mental health charities, Rethink, Sane, and the Zito Trust, this figure is a sorrowful reflection of the current state of hospital care for people with psychiatric illness.
The report, Behind Closed Doors, says that despite 650 national strategies, guidelines, and frameworks issued by the government over the past five years, little progress has been made in the care of people with serious mental illnesses.
Postcode prescribing continues to flourish throughout the United Kingdom, says the report, with many patients still failing to receive modern drugs despite rulings from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in 2002 and 2003 that atypical antipsychotic drugs should be used as firstline drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Of the 20 000 or so people sectioned under the Mental Health Act each year, one in five are readmitted within three months of leaving hospital, confirming the so called "revolving door" of acute mental health care.
Feedback from patients also suggests that their experiences were so negative that they would do anything to avoid being readmitted. In particular, they complained about the lack of basic necessities, privacy, dignity, and comfort and of being bored. They also said they were given inadequate information about their condition and excluded from the planning of their care.
Paul Corry, head of policy and campaigns at the charity Rethink, blames the lack of effective community mental health services for the rise in section rates. As a result, vulnerable people are left untreated and unsupported.
Majorie Wallace of Sane believes that the state of hospital wards deters people from being admitted voluntarily. "There can be no freedom of choice or chance of better treatment while the acute wards remain in many places filthy and overcrowded, and staff demoralised. It is no wonder that people who are disturbed or depressed will only stay in hospital if sectioned, and that doctors are forced to take the risk of not admitting people who may urgently need inpatient care.
"There should be no need to have people detained against their will if the conditions in which they received voluntary treatment were made tolerable and humane. So dreadful are many wards that patients say—and psychiatrists confirm—that the only way they will stay in hospital is if they are sectioned under the Mental Health Act," she said.(London Zosia Kmietowicz)