New research to improve experiences of people with serious mental health problems

Through this research project, Professor Johnson and Dr Lloyd-Evans hope to improve the experience and outcomes of people with serious mental health conditions, including those detained under the Mental Health Act.

The Mental Health Act (1983) covers the assessment, treatment and rights of people with a mental health disorder. Under this act a person can be detained, or ‘sectioned’, and treated without their agreement if they are at risk of harm to themselves or others.

Their research project will learn from a programme in Switzerland where crisis planning - including developing individualised strategies for monitoring for early signs of crisis and empowering patients to develop and put into practice crisis prevention plans - has shown promise in reducing compulsory admission in people who have been detained before under the Mental Health Act.

The research team developing and testing these strategies will include people with relevant lived experience and mental health professionals. They will adapt the programme to the UK and test it in an initial trial. This will be a vital first step towards a large multi-site study giving a more definite answer as to whether a UK version of the programme prevents compulsory admissions.

Professor Johnson and Dr Lloyd-Evans will adapt a successful approach to crisis planning to reduce compulsory admission in people who have been detained before under the Mental Health Act.

Professor Johnson said: “People who have been ‘sectioned’ under the Mental Health Act at least once are at high risk of experiencing this again, as our team showed in carrying out the NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit’s evidence review for the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act. 

“There is currently remarkably little evidence on how to prevent this, and good evidence that it can’t be done through coercion. We are very excited to be setting up a research team that will include both clinicians and people with relevant lived experience to develop a strategy that we hope can move things forward with this major challenge.”

Links

• NIHR Policy Research Programme
• Professor Sonia Johnson 
• Dr Bryn Lloyd-Evans 
• UCL Division of Psychiatry 
• UCL Institute of Mental Health