The number of people in England detained under the Mental Health Act rose by a third last year. The number of people detained rose from 32,649 in 2008-9 to 42,499 in 2009-10. The overall number of mental-health inpatients rose by 5% to 107,765. Nearly 40% of inpatients were detained under the Act, a rise of 7.6% on 2008-9.
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4 comments:
Could the inpatient number increase be related to the decrease in beds? Less beds means a potentially higher turnover and therefore increase in short term admissions increasing the statistical number but not the overall stay length? Would be interesting to have the overall length of stay, as I measured in my trust a significant decrease in length of stay over the last three years?
Also, the decrease in beds is leading to only the most severley affected mentally ill being admitted to hospital meaning an increase in sectioned clients but a decrease in informal?
Thanks Alan. Yes I think there is definitely something of a 'revolving-door' effect going on here and I would also agree with you that people are becoming increasingly ill out in the community before they are admitted. I can't help thinking that - given the fractured, and fractious, nature of most modern urban communities - in some ways the loss of the old asylums was a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water; as long as they were asylums in the best sense of the word that is and not just warehouses for dumping unwanted and difficult people. But maybe that is a debate for another day. To be honest there wasn't that much detail in the original report from Community Care so I guess you would have to look at the original figures to find out more detail.
Best Wishes,
John Gale,
Mental Health Update
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