The UK experience reveals that it is in the field of forensic psychiatry that racial injustices and cultural oppression are felt most acutely by African Caribbean service users.
People from Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups suffer poorer health, have reduced life expectancy and have greater problems with access to health care than the majority White population.
Inequality in mental health services between Black people and the majority White population has been the subject of ongoing debate and study for decades. It is well documented that people from BME communities and African Caribbean's in particular fare worse under the British mental health system.
There is a history of misunderstanding and discrimination when it comes to the use of compulsory powers against African Caribbean's. Black people mistrust and often fear services, and staff are often wary of the Black community, fearing criticism and not knowing how to respond.
BMH UK believe that mental health law should be framed within both human right and race relations legislation and geared towards reducing discriminatory practices and increase the protection of the rights of both patients and carers engaged with mental health services.
The 2007 Mental Health Act fails on all of these points, BMH UK believe this Bill is unethical and unworkable and has thrown away the opportunity of updating the 1983 Mental Health Act so that it meets the demands of a 21st Century multicultural society.
Mental Health services within the UK: The African Caribbean Mental Experience
The David Bennett Inquiry report made the crisis in BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) mental health a national issue and has brought to light the discrimination in mental health services that has led to black people being excessively diagnosed as ‘schizophrenic', over -represented among people who are ‘sectioned' (involuntary committed to hospital) and apprehended in excessive numbers by the police as ‘mentally ill' , despite having similar rates of mental ill health as other ethnic groups.
Culturally appropriate and acceptable behaviour has also been wrongly construed as symptoms of abnormality or aggression. The recourse to advocacy, tribunals and appropriate care packages has been slow to positively impact this group.
A recent social exclusion report on mental health acknowledged that Black people have higher levels of dissatisfaction with statutory (mental health) services and are twice as likely to disagree with their diagnosis.
Academics and professionals in this field purport that psychiatric power and race working together in combination, in collusion, is a deadly mixture . This was tragically highlighted by the death of David Bennett an African Caribbean inpatient in at mental health unit in Norwich, England. Bennett was racially abused on the night of his death by a fellow patient after a dispute over access to the phone on the ward.
He was subsequently forcibly restrained by five nurses for almost half an hour. They only released him after they realised he had stopped breathing. No attempt was made to resuscitate him. A subsequent Public Inquiry into his treatment and care and circumstances surrounding his death concluded that Mental Health Services within the UK are institutionally racist. Bennett's treatment and experience of the system, over a twenty year period, as a revoling door patient typify the African Caribbean experience of metal health services.
Ethnic issues in mental health services
Black and ethnic minorities are more often:
1. diagnosed as schizophrenic
2. compulsorily detained under the Mental Health Act
3. admitted as ‘offender patients'
4. held by police under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act
5. transferred to locked wards from open wards
6. not referred for psychotherapy
7. given high doses of medication
8. sent to psychiatrists by courts
9. have unmet needs
Source : S. Fernando (2003) Cultural Diversity, Mental Health and Psychiatry: The Struggle Against Racism
Statistics on Black Mental Health in the UK
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