Today, the Department of Health and
Social Care
Social care means the services that give care and support to people who need it.
published its Mental Health Act
White Paper
A White Paper is a report that is written by
the government
The Government are the people who run the country. The Government decide how much tax people should pay and how things like the National Health Service (NHS) should work.
. It talks about new rules the government wants to make.
.
The proposed reforms aim to change the way people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
and autistic people are treated in
law
Laws are the rules that everyone in the country has to follow. If you don't follow the rules you can get in trouble with the police.
by "recognising a mental health inpatient setting is often not the best place to meet their specific needs" and that "neither
autism
Autism is a disability. Autistic people find it difficult to understand what other people think and feel. They also find it difficult to tell people what they think and feel. Everyone with autism is different.
nor a learning disability are grounds for detention for treatment of themselves".
Legislation is set to go before
Parliament
Parliament is a group of people who make laws and check what the government is doing.
in 2022.
Dan Scorer, Head of Policy and External Affairs at the learning disability charity Mencap, said:
“We welcome these proposals to reform the Mental Health Act so that people with a learning disability and/or autism cannot be detained if they do not have a mental health condition. Currently, thousands of children and adults are locked away in modern day asylums even when they do not have a treatable mental health condition.
“It is the right thing to do to require commissioners to develop community
A community is the people and places in an area. support, but this new duty must be properly funded, not left to cash-strapped local authorities who are already struggling to fund social care. While putting Care and Treat review recommendations on a statutory footing looks good on paper, this makes no sense unless the reviews themselves are also a statutory requirement – otherwise it risks reviews simply not happening.
“Ultimately, changes to the Mental Health Act must be backed by a cross-government strategy
A strategy is a plan to show what an organisation
An organisation are a group of people who work together. , or a person, wants to do and how they are going to do it. to deliver on Government promises to get people with a learning disability and/or autism out of in-patient mental health units. The Government also needs to commit funding to develop the right housing and social care support to truly transform care and close inpatient beds for good. People with a learning disability have a right to live in their own homes, not in hospitals.”
Read the Department of Health and Social Care's announced in full online here.
-ENDS-
For further information or to arrange an
interview
An interview is a meeting where you talk to someone or a group of people about something. When you have an interview for a job, you have to answer questions and say why you would be good at the job. The person who gives the best answers is offered the job.
with a Mencap
spokesperson
A spokesperson is someone who speaks up about something. They usually speak up on behalf of a group or organisation.
or
case study
A case study is a piece of writing that tells people more information about someone's experience.
, please contact Mencap’s media team on:
- media@mencap.org.uk
- 020 7696 5414 (including out of hours).
Notes to editors
About Mencap
There are approximately 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK.
Mencap works to support people with a learning disability, their families and carers by fighting to change laws, improve services and access to
education
Education is when you learn things. When you fill in a form to get a job, education means you write where you went to school, college or university.
,
employment
Employment means having a job.
and
leisure
Leisure is when you have time to do things you enjoy like playing sports or going to the pub.
facilities.
Mencap supports thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want.
Visit www.mencap.org.uk.
For advice and information about learning disability and Mencap services in your area, contact Mencap’s freephone Learning Disability Helpline on 0808 808 1111 (10am-3pm, Monday-Friday) or email helpline@mencap.org.uk.
What is a learning disability?
- A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability which can cause problems with everyday tasks – for example shopping and cooking, or travelling to new places – which affects someone for their whole life
- Learning disability is not a mental illness or a learning difficulty, such as
dyslexia
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty. People who have dyslexia can find it hard to read, write and spell.
. Very often the term ‘learning difficulty’ is wrongly used interchangeably with ‘learning disability’ - People with a learning disability can take longer to learn new things and may need support to develop new skills, understand difficult information and engage with other people. The level of support someone needs is different with every individual. For example, someone with a severe learning disability might need much more support with daily tasks than someone with a mild learning disability.