Decrease in detentions under Mental Health Act from 2020-21 to 2021-22

The number of detentions under the Mental Health Act in England decreased by 5.7 per cent from 2020-21 to 2021-22, a new report by NHS Digital shows.

The Mental Health Act Statistics 2021-2022 publication provides Official Statistics about people with a mental disorder who are detained (or ‘sectioned’) under the Act in hospital, in the interests of their own health or safety, or for the protection of others. It covers people in secure psychiatric hospitals, other NHS trusts and independent providers.

In 2021-2022, 53,337 new detentions under the Mental Health Act were recorded but the overall number will be higher. Not all providers submitted data and some submitted incomplete data.

From the providers that submitted good quality data, there was an estimated decrease in detentions of 5.7 per cent from 2020-21 to 2021-22.

For the first time, this publication includes data relating to count and crude rate4 per 100,000 population of all detentions at combined Sustainability and Transformation Partnership5 and demographic (age, gender, ethnicity and deprivation) breakdowns.

The publication also shows:

• Detention rates were higher for males (93.8 per 100,000 population) than females (86.4 per 100,000 population).
• Among adults, detention rates tend to decline with age. Known detention rates for the 18 to 34 age group (144.2 detentions per 100,000 population) were around 67% higher than for those aged 65+ (86.3 per 100,000 population).
• Among the five broad ethnic groups, known rates of detention for the Black or Black British group (341.7 detentions per 100,000 population) were over four times those of the White group (72.4 per 100,000 population).
• Known rates of Community Treatment Order (CTO) use for males (12.4 per 100,000 population) were higher than the rate for females (7.3 per 100,000 population). Across age groups, those aged 35 to 49 had the highest rate of CTO use (16.4 known uses per 100,000 population compared to 9.8 uses per 100,000 population for all age groups).
• Among broad ethnic groups, known rates of CTO use for the Black or Black British group (75.5 uses per 100,000 population) were over 11 times the rate for the White group (6.8 uses per 100,000 population).