On Wednesday, 16 November 2022, the RCN gave oral evidence to the Joint Committee on the Draft Mental Health Bill in England and Wales after submitting written evidence. The Joint Committee comprises MPs and members of the House of Lords and has held several oral evidence sessions from stakeholders, including from the criminal justice system, NHS leaders, people with lived experience of being detained under the Mental Health Act, and Royal Colleges. Carol Webley-Brown, Council Member, represented the Royal College of Nursing.
A transcript of the session has been published. You can rewatch the session online. We spoke candidly about the challenges nurses face within these services, including understaffing, burnout, worries about patient outcomes, and the continued racial inequalities resulting from the existing Mental Health Act. We told the Joint Committee about how many mental health nurses feel undervalued in their roles and the importance of nursing leadership:
“When nurses work very hard and get up to consultant level, they are not valued enough to do what they need to do for their patients, by which I mean that if we are prescribing nurses, we still need a doctor to sign off things. It is not that we do not like our colleagues - I love them very much - but we need to be seen in our own right as professionals and to be valued. We can make a definite difference in the workplace and community.”
While speaking about the racial inequalities in mental health services, we made clear to the Joint Committee that unless there is an anti-racism approach taken throughout any legislative changes to the Mental Health Act, these inequalities will continue.
“Who is more detained than others is visible without collecting the data. Unless you have anti-racism threading through the legislation, we will not solve the problem. A lot of the structures and systems mean that it leans heavily on that racialised group. Until you unpick the things that seem to weigh heavily on those individuals, it will not change. More choice, greater use of the community and people who serve and deliver the services looking as they do will make a difference because you have a better understanding if you come from the same or similar background.”