Psychiatric ASBOs skyrocketing

More than 1,200 people in England have been made subject to compulsory treatment outside hospital five months after the powers were introduced under the Mental Health Act 2007.

I wrote about the ushering in of the draconian CTOs (Community Treatment Orders) aka Psychiatric ASBOs as part of the changes to the Mental Health Act last November.

And figures released in a statement from the Mental Health Act Commission in the past few days state that the demand had far exceeded expectations.

And campaigners against CTOs argue: “It is already evident that the government has underestimated the likely numbers of people being put on supervised community treatment. We believe that the number could rise to some 10,000 people over the next decade.”  (Simon Lawton-Smith, head of policy at the Mental Health Foundation).

Research conducted by the King’s Fund  have estimated there will be a gradual year on increase of numbers. They believe it is more likely that between 7,000-13,000 service users could be placed on CTOs over the next 10-15 years.

CTOs are a way, New Labour claimed, of reducing psychiatric admissions yet studies have shown in Australia, that CTO placement, aboriginal ethnicity, younger age, personality disorder and previous health service use were all associated with increased admission rates. The authors conclusion stated that we “should question the rationale for CTOs and advocate more effective treatments” (British Journal of Psychiatry, 2004).

Furthermore, The Institute Of Psychiatry’s “International experiences of using CTOs” (March 2007) noted as well that ethnicity data from Israel, USA, New Zealand and Australia,“indicate that relative to the proportion of the general population comprised by their ethnic group, most ethnic groups might be over-represented amongst CTO recipients.”

And bear in mind  that young Black men are 38% more likely than the average to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act in the UK. It will be interesting to see a breakdown of these statistics regarding race and gender in relation to CTOs.

And where are the safeguards, right of appeal?

This doesn’t bode well either: Campaigners remain “deeply concerned” that people subject to compulsory powers under the Mental Health Act 2007 will miss out on an advocacy service to be launched next week.

Mind’s policy and campaigns manager Anna Bird said service users could be waiting “many more months” after the 1 April deadline before fully trained advocates are available in some parts of England.

The 3 C’s of NL….compulsion, coercion and conformity….

Jacqui-gate

So Jacqui Smith is embarrassed. I bet her constituents are a lot more embarrassed having her as their MP (and especially as she has a slim majority).

Though she is indeed cross at her husband for ‘”mistakenly” claiming the cost of two adult movies on Commons expenses’.

Oh, and the euphemistic language of ‘adult films’… Porn is porn. Laughable really especially considering Smith’s social authoritarian agenda.

Mistakenly…? Easily done, isn’t it, sticking a couple of DVDs on the tab and claiming it back, inadvertently

And is it correct to employ your nearest and dearest as your assistant?

A government limping pathetically to the next election, while sticking their greedy unaccountable snouts in the trough, fiddling their expenses while the economy burns……