Labour’s Mental Health Act reforms won’t stop the abuse of Autistic people

The following article is a comment piece from Simone Aspis, project manager for Free Our People Now – a project led by Autistic people and people with Learning Difficulties at Inclusion London

On Wednesday 6 November, the government announced major reforms of the Mental Health Act.

The bill focuses on keeping people in psychiatric hospitals against their wishes. We don’t think this bill will stop us from being locked up, abused, tortured, treated inhumanely, and left to die through neglect in psychiatric hospitals.

Mental Health Act reforms: not good enough

The new bill will introduce a 28-day limit for detention for Autistic people and people with Learning Difficulties who do not also have a mental health condition.

But many of us are given another diagnosis or label that means we can still be detained for a long time. Or we are not formally recognised as being Autistic or having Learning Difficulties. We don’t think this will stop us from being locked up.

Having Statutory Care and Treatment Plans for us will have limited impact if mental health professionals still have the power to lock us up, for years on end, without a release date.

Increasing numbers of young people are being detained and we face widespread prejudice. It will take more than just involving more patients, families and carers to change this.

Free Our People Now would welcome a Mental Health Bill that is in line with our UN human rights as Disabled people. This would focus on stopping us being locked up in the first place and keeping us out of psychiatric hospitals for good.

We need a bill that focuses on giving people with Learning Difficulties and Autistic people the right to the support we need, to live great lives in the community.

Our Bring People Home From Psychiatric Hospital network has created a list of Government Asks for what we need to see in the Mental Health Bill, to stop us being locked up and help us to thrive in our communities. It has been signed by 27 organisations.

About Free Our People Now

Free Our People Now is a project led by Autistic people and people with Learning Difficulties, to get us out of psychiatric hospitals.

We are a part of Inclusion London, which is a Deaf and Disabled People-led Organisation (DDPO). We support other DDPOs across London and nationally, and campaign for change.

Featured image via the Canary