Sister of autistic Elliot trapped in mental health hospital says 'he is scared and homesick'

As the government pledges to halve the number of people with learning disabilities and autism in mental health hospitals by 2024, Rebecca Davis has revealed how she has been fighting for four years to get her brother released from a mental health hospital.

The 29-year-old said: "When my brother Elliot was admitted to hospital back in 2018, we hoped he would receive the help he needed and be able to return home within a few weeks. But more than four years have gone by, and he’s still being detained.

“Elliot has autism and learning disabilities, and he doesn’t need to be there. Taking people hundreds of miles away from home isn't the answer – Elliot is scared and homesick. He has no quality of life and being stuck in an ATU (Assessment and Treatment Unit) makes everything worse.

"We’ve been working with specialist lawyers and Elliot has been fit for discharge since September. We hope he’ll be able to come back home in July, but it all depends on whether the right community care package is ready for him.”

She added: “The process of finding and implementing the right care provider, finding appropriate accommodation and the lack of communication between all organisations is a huge problem. If all parts of the system work together, the length of time people would spend in ATUs (Assessment and Treatment Units) would be considerably less, minimising the trauma that’s inflicted on them.

"All we want is for Elliot to live in his home and to have a suitable care package so he can make the most of life. Elliot needs specialist support, but he does not deserve to be shut away and detained in isolation.

'It feels like nothing has changed since Winterbourne'

"It feels like nothing has changed since the Winterbourne View scandal – if anything, things have got a lot worse. People continue to suffer, and I just want my brother to be with us – safe and happy at home and the same for all the other people stuck in ATUs. They deserve better.”

The government’s new Building the Right Support (BtRS) Action Plan pledges to offer better support for people with learning disabilities and autism from birth and halve the number of them in mental health units by March 2024, compared to March 2015, with the help of additional targeted funding of over £90m in 2022 to 2023.

The number of people with a learning disability and autism in specialist mental health inpatient settings at the end of May 2022 was 2,010 (a 30.7 per cent net reduction since March 2015).

It has also promised to work to improve the quality of care and offer better preventative support in the community.

Minister for Care and Mental Health, Gillian Keegan, said: “For too long, autistic people and people with a learning disability have remained as inpatients in mental health units – not necessarily because it was the best place, but because of failings in the system and a lack of community facilities to support them.

“I am committed to driving further, faster progress to ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people, of all ages, receive high-quality health and social care support in their communities when they need it.”

Plan is 'a step forward'

Dan Scorer, head of Policy and public affairs at Mencap, called the plan “a step towards delivering on the unfulfilled promises made by governments over more than a decade to get people out of these institutions following repeated abuse scandals”.

He added: “There are still over 2,000 people with a learning disability and/or autism locked away in in-patient mental health hospitals, with the average length of stay over five years.

“However, only by investing in the community support and housing needed will we be able to close in-patient hospital beds and stop a new generation of people from becoming trapped in these places.”

The Action Plan includes the proposal in the draft Mental Health Bill that neither a learning disability or autism can be considered mental health disorders requiring compulsory treatment.

Where people would benefit from inpatient care, the plan seeks to improve the quality of care in mental health hospitals.

'Secluded institutional care is fundamentally wrong'

Dr Rhidian Hughes, chief executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG), said: “We welcome the government’s long-overdue plan to address the appalling state of long-stay institutional care in England. There is no doubt that harsh institutional environments do not have a place in care and support for people with learning disabilities and autism.

“While it is encouraging that progress has been made, it is still unacceptably slow. Secluded institutional care is fundamentally wrong and exposes some of the most vulnerable citizens in this country to serious risk of harm. There are no excuses for this type of provision, and VODG welcomes the focus the regulator, the Care Quality Commission, has also given to this.”

Dr Hughes wants the publication of the Action Plan to be the catalyst for statutory partners and agencies to work together, as a matter of urgency, with voluntary sector partners to reduce the number of admissions and readmissions to long stay units.

He also wants to see the “closure of all institutional settings for people with learning disabilities and autism and the development of comprehensive, effective, and safe provision in the community” by pumping £400m into community facilities.

In addition, VODG is calling on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to direct CQC to rate all Assessment and Treatment Units as ‘Requiring Improvement’ if any person has been living there for more than 12 months. Then for the rating to be downgraded to ‘Inadequate’ if anyone has been living there for more than 24 months and all new admissions stopped until the rating has improved.

The Building the Right Support Action Plan is available here