On the back of recent documentaries, reports and a current inquiry into failings regarding Essex Mental Health Trusts and after talk of an inquiry into mental health hospitals in England, we are demanding a statutory public inquiry into mental health units/the psychiatric inpatient system throughout the whole of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and for meaningful change relevant to the findings of such to occur.

We have experienced first-hand the abuse, neglect and general mistreatment that is allowed to occur daily on psychiatric wards. Vulnerable and unwell people are being subjected to all kinds of traumatising and dehumanising abuse and the reports of fatal neglect are becoming repetitive; lessons are not being learnt. The government must not knowingly allow this to continue any longer because when those in power refuse to or fail to make the necessary changes and cause the necessary investigations which will ultimately save lives then the power has to fall to those who have survived it, the power has to fall to those who know how desperately things need to change, the power has to fall to us. 

We can not allow any stones to go unturned, this is a systematic issue that is not limited to a small number of units or areas. These are issues that are consistent throughout the UK and this is why a statutory public inquiry must include hospitals in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and not just England or a small area of England.

Lives are being actively put at risk and measures are rarely being put in place to hold those who are instigating and subjecting patients to blatant abuse and neglect accountable. Mistreatment often resulting in serious harm (both physical and psychological damage) is going without consequences. 

Institutional racism, sexism, classism, ableism and homophobia is being brushed under the carpet as long as it is convenient to those in power and doesn’t cause too significant outrage and even when there is outrage, excuses are made and those attempting to spread awareness are silenced. According to the NHS Mental Health Act Annual Figures 2020/21: “Black people are more than 4 times more likely to be the subject of 'restrictive interventions' such as being restrained or held in isolation while in hospital.” These ‘restrictive interventions’ are often overused, unnecessary, preventable, traumatic and cause physical harm and fatalities. There is a consistent lack of understanding of learning disabilities and autism resulting in restrictive measures and intervention causing detrimental harm and distress to those with complex needs. According to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as at February 2022, there were 126 autistic people or people with a learning disability in long-term segregation. This includes 15 children and young people. 

This is a greater issue than just a small amount of patients and their families who have had negative experiences of the UK’s Mental Health System. This is an issue that is affecting the lives of so many and basic human rights are being violated over and over. Words can not stress enough the need for a statutory public inquiry and thorough investigations into the Psychiatric Inpatient System throughout the entirety of the UK. 

Scared, vulnerable and poorly children are being sent hundreds of miles from their families and loved ones to hospitals which are causing preventable trauma and putting them at risk daily. No parent should have to answer the phone to find out their child has passed away in a “place of safety.” Children are being left on adult wards because of the lack in CAMHS beds, where their rights are ignored and the necessary measures to safeguard them aren’t being put in place. Children are being taken advantage of and put in harms way by those who are supposed to care for them repeatedly.

Respect for the dignity of patients is disregarded and an environment that is supposed to be “therapeutic” and full of understanding and support instead radiates humiliation, loneliness and fear. 

This isn’t the source of a shocking headline for journalists to use as an opportunity to benefit themselves, it’s not something to use for a social media post with the aim of gaining followers or attention, this isn’t a political view that can be bought up whilst it’s a hot topic and carelessly discarded just as quickly. 

This is the reality for the thousands who are currently trapped in a broken system. This is the reality of inside the Uk’s Psychiatric Hospitals.