Mental health services still showing inequality, census reveals

8 Mar 07
Unacceptable race inequalities persist in mental health services despite the injection of £16m of public funds committed to tackling the problem, campaigners said this week.

09 March 2007

Unacceptable race inequalities persist in mental health services despite the injection of £16m of public funds committed to tackling the problem, campaigners said this week.

An as yet unpublished census, seen by Public Finance, reinforces evidence that ethnic minorities, particularly black and mixed race groups, are over-represented in the mental health system.

Publication of the 'Count Me In' census for 2006 was expected last December, but it has yet to emerge. The census, conducted jointly each year by the Healthcare Commission and the Mental Health Act Commission, forms a central plank of the government's Delivering Race Equality framework.

The five-year framework, launched in 2005 and backed with £16m of funding, was drawn up in response to the death of David 'Rocky' Bennett, an Afro-Caribbean man who died in psychiatric care in 1998.

The 2006 census reveals findings similar to its predecessor report: the admission rate for black groups is still 3-4 times higher than average, while black people are up to 38% more likely to be sectioned than average.

Matilda MacAttram, director of the campaigning group Black Mental Health UK, told PF: 'The 2006 census tells us quite clearly that absolutely nothing has been done to address problems outlined in the Bennett inquiry report.

'One of the saddest things about the census… is that the same people who were interviewed last year were interviewed again for this census. It's ironic and almost perverse that a programme rolled out to address discrimination and the over-representative of ethnic minorities is just exposing more of the same… It's disturbing that £16m can disappear and nothing can change.'

But the Department of Health stressed that Delivering Race Equality was a five-year plan and the 2006 census figures reflected just the first year of progress.

A spokeswoman told PF that implementing the programme was a 'top-tier' priority and would remain so.

'We understand that people are anxious for change, but no one would have predicted significant movement in just a year. We are trying to introduce reform along the whole pathway of care, and doing that in a safe and sustainable way will inevitably take time,' she said.

A Healthcare Commission spokeswoman said the census had taken longer to finalise than the previous year but was likely to be published in late March or early April.

The Commission for Racial Equality last month announced that it was to formally investigate the Department of Health amid concerns that race impact assessments were not being properly carried out.

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