Locked Out Locked In

WHERE’S the big conversation on mental health really going if people are being killed in restraint by the police like today on the streets of the U.K? 

Distressed but not threatening and unarmed police sprayed a man with PAVA, an incapacitant similar to pepper spray. 

Shortly after his breathing became laboured and he died.  

Yet with the Prince and Princess of Wales alongside the Sussexes launching mental health support charity Heads Together and encouraging people to talk more and stigmatise less what’s the true picture of care for those suffering psychologically? 

We watched the jovial, clever and funny face of Stephen Fry make bi – polar part of the national discourse but on other disorders such as schizophrenia and psychosis there is silence shrouded in fear and prejudice. 

Last week BBC documentary maker Panorama showed undercover filming by one of their investigative journalists who worked in a medium secure unit in Preston rated good by the Care Quality Commission.  

Use of extended periods of isolation in small seclusion rooms sometimes for weeks if not longer was frequent and contrary to guidelines.  It should only be used in extreme cases.

But research by BBC News has found the numbers are steadily increasing.

In 2016-17, seclusion was used on 7,720 occasions. That number had risen to 14,164 by 2020-21 – an increase of more than 80%.

Longer stays in seclusion – ranging from one to three months – also appear to be increasing, according to NHS data.

Young girls whose Mum’s and sisters want them home were roughly restrained for seemingly little reason and patients were goaded, jeered at and slapped and pinched. 

What’s the real picture of the psychiatric system and when is treatment like in the documentary going to be brought to the forefront of the appropriate professionals’ agenda: people who have the authority to make change? 

A criminal investigation has been launched into the unit and Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham said the images were not something expected to be seen in the U.K. 

Hopefully it won’t result in another whitewash quickly moved on from and forgotten and a true picture can emerge of how people are being treated in the mental health system behind locked doors and twelve-foot-high fences. So our dialogue on reform can include those excluded and left out inside.