Autism: Number of people stuck in hospital 'national scandal'

The government's failure to reduce the number of autistic people confined to mental health units in England is a "national scandal", a charity says.

The National Autistic Society said a promise to get those with the condition out of hospitals had not been met.

NHS figures for 2021 show a 10% rise in patients compared with six years ago.

The government said it was investing £62m in community services and supporting discharges from hospitals.

According to the National Autistic Society, the majority of detentions are made under the Mental Health Act 1983, despite autism itself not being a mental health disorder.

"As the law currently stands, you can actually be sectioned just for being autistic," said Felicity Stephenson, the organisation's mental health policy lead.

"We are failing autistic people - this is a national scandal," she said.

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world. It is a spectrum condition and affects people in different ways.

Patients can be admitted to hospital due to the lack of a care package, the need for family or carers to have some respite or because an autistic individual has mental health problems.

In 2012, following BBC Panorama's investigation into abuse of those with learning disabilities, including autism, at Winterbourne View private hospital, then Care Minister Norman Lamb said the government was planning a "dramatic reduction" in detentions.

Sharon Clarke, from Doncaster, said her son Ryan was hospitalised when he was 17 and has remained there for 15 years.

"They came and took him away voluntarily and he went into a mental health hospital suffering with depression and I didn't get my son back," she said.

He was originally diagnosed with schizophrenia, but at 28 he received a new diagnosis of autism.

"He is not the person he was when he first went in, now he's just a shadow of his former self."

She said her son had been placed in seclusion at one point and she was not allowed to see him for more than four months.

"He's never committed a crime, but he's locked up with people who have.

"I don't think autistic people or people with learning disabilities should ever be in a hospital. It should be community living only."

Mrs Clarke has campaigned for her son's release and has been told he should be able to leave hospital in September.

"We're telling him he's getting out, but I don't think he believes it.

"He's been failed, he's been let down badly by the system."

In 2015, NHS England committed to closing 35-50% of inpatient beds for autistic people with or without a learning disability and to develop the right community support by 2019.

NHS figures on people with autism in hospital settings, which began to be collected from 2015, show numbers had risen from 1,105 to 1,215 earlier this year.

Ms Stephenson said: "There are a number of these people who are ready to be discharged, but because there aren't the right services in the community there is nowhere for them to go, so they remain in hospital."

She said people who were autistic but did not have a mental health condition would not benefit from an inpatient facility.

"It will actually make behaviour worse and can be a traumatising experience as they're in an environment where people haven't had the adequate training to understand how to support autistic people.

"Wards can be loud, noisy and bright, which can really affect sensory differences, causing escalations in behaviour and leading to people being sectioned for longer."

Beckii Davis, from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, called the community health team in 2018 about her 26-year-old brother Elliot, who has autism and epilepsy. He has remained in hospital ever since.

"He went into a little crisis with his self-injury, so we were concerned for him hurting himself and we just needed some support to minimise it," she said.

"I was told 'we'll get him into hospital, check his medication and get him out, so it'll be quite quick'. I didn't expect to be sat here three years later."

She said Elliot was "very kind" and his family was very important to him and initially he had improved.

"We had a good six to 12 months where he was in a really good place, but he couldn't discharge because there was nowhere for him, no house and no provider package to help him in the community."

Ms Davis said the situation had deteriorated since and she had no indication when her brother would be discharged.

"Now I'd say he is probably worse than when he first went in.

"I get phone calls where he's crying saying he wants to come home which is quite hard because you can't give him the answers he needs.

"He's just got no hope. It makes me angry he's still there three years on and the unknown of how long it will take for him to be out."

According to the British Medical Association, an estimated 700,000 people in the UK have a diagnosis of autism and one in 100 children in the UK has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

The Department of Health and Social Care said: "We want autistic people to have the right support to have the best possible quality of life in their community and we will be publishing our new all-age autism strategy shortly.

"We are determined to continue to reduce the number of autistic people in mental health hospitals and the reliance on inpatient care by investing in community services and supporting discharges with £62m funding."

The National Autistic Society has campaigned for changes to the Mental Health Act and the government has proposed reforms.

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