23 March 2006
Dear Sir,
Sadly, the Healthcare Commission’s findings come as no surprise (Census reveals wide extent of mixed sex psychiatric wards). Vulnerable inpatients with serious mental illnesses continue to have their safety put under threat on a daily basis.
The same level of abuse, harassment or intimidation would not be tolerated on general hospital wards and it should not, in the twenty-first century be happening on adult psychiatric wards, where people are supposed to be in a place of safety receiving care and treatment. It is also not uncommon for children as young as 12 years old to find themselves on these wards due to a lack of places within specialist children and adolescent mental health units.
In the eyes of the patient, a curtain down the middle of a ward does not make their living space single-sex, and the current guidance on single sex accommodation needs to be urgently redefined.
There also remains a glaring need for services to be redesigned so that they are more culturally appropriate for individuals from black and minority ethnic communities and it is disappointing that so little progress has been made in this area.
Kathryn Hill
Director of Mental Health Programmes
The Mental Health Foundation
Return to Letters 2007
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