WIREDGOV

The Equality and Human Rights Commission yesterday welcomed the announcement by Home Secretary Theresa May to end the use of police cells to detain anyone aged under 18 with mental health problems, and to find alternatives for all people held in police cells under the Mental Health Act.

It also called on Government to go further and implement all recommendations in its inquiry ‘Preventing Deaths in Detention of Adults with Mental Health Conditions’ published earlier this year.

Mark Hammond, Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:

This is an important and welcome step in the right direction from the Home Secretary. There remains a lot more to do to tackle serious cracks in our systems of care for those with serious mental health conditions and we are looking forward to working with Ministers to deliver further improvements.

When the state detains people for their own good or the safety of others it has a very high level of responsibility to ensure their life is protected. For people with mental health conditions that is a particular challenge with a large number of tragic cases over the past few years where that responsibility has not been met.

The Commission's inquiry into non-natural deaths of those detained in psychiatric hospitals, prisons and police cells made a number of other recommendations to ensure lessons from previous tragedies were learnt. This included creating more rigorous systems and processes to prevent basic mistakes; improving training of key staff in mental health care; greater transparency and more robust investigations; and adopting the EHRC Human Rights Framework in all three settings as a practical tool to improve care.

Notes to editors

• Read the Commission's report - Preventing Deaths in Detention of Adults with Mental Health Conditions: An inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the press release can be found here.
• The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006. It is an independent body responsible for protecting and promoting equality and human rights in Great Britain. It aims to encourage equality and diversity, eliminate unlawful discrimination, and promote and protect human rights. The Commission enforces equality legislation on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation. It encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998 and is accredited by the UN as an ‘A status’ National Human Rights Institution.