Article 39 is running a three-year project, partly funded by BBC Children in Need, which raises awareness of children and young people’s views and experiences of mental health hospitals, and seeks to ensure their voices are heard and they influence the development of law, policy and practice. Click on the graphic below to find out more!
‘Blooming Change’ is a group of young people who have all experienced being detained as children in mental health inpatient care. The group is developing training around understanding children’s experiences and feelings when they are detained, and ending the misuse of restraint.
Find out more about the group here.
A safe space? The rights of children in mental health inpatient care
Our report ‘A safe space? The rights of children in mental health inpatient care’ shares the views and experiences of children, as told to their advocates. Among the report’s findings are that children are being kept in hospital for too long, often many miles from home, and in environments not conducive to their needs and rights as children. Staggering numbers are still being placed on adult wards and are subject to harmful restraint, seclusion and segregation. Children’s right to help from an advocate when they make a complaint about their care or treatment appears to be frequently ignored.
Many children are in hospital as ‘informal patients’ and there by ‘consent’. But many are kept locked up, or do not understand their rights and fear being ‘sectioned’ if they try to leave. These children are denied the legal safeguards provided to children who are formally detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 – such as the right to an independent mental health advocate and to be given information about their rights. The report calls for urgent action from healthcare providers and government.
Key statistics
For the detail behind these figures, read our Children in hospital (Mental health) statistics briefing which brings together available data on children in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Tier 4 units (also referred to as inpatient care or psychiatric care).