As a report into mental health care in England finds a sharp increase in people sent for urgent care, two people tell their traumatic stories of being hospitalisedAdult mental health crisis referrals in England double in a yearIt has been more than four decades since Devon Marston, a 66-year-old community organiser and musician, was taken to a psychiatric hospital where he was restrained, injected and forced to take medication. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.“Everything was said around me and about me, but no one asked me how I was doing,” he said. “I had no voice, and there was no one to say: ‘Don’t do that to him,’ or: ‘Listen to him, hear what he has to say.’” Continue reading...
A Guardian article highlights racial disparities in England's mental healthcare system, where Black patients report traumatic experiences, including overrepresentation in detentions, inadequate staffing, and potentially differential treatment with medication. A Care Quality Commission report confirms a surge in urgent mental health referrals and the disproportionate detention of Black individuals. Former patients advocate for systemic change centered on lived experiences to address these inequalities.
