Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2007) 13: 350-357. doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.107.003582
© 2007 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Ethnic bias in the application of the Mental Health Act 1983

Kalpana Dein, Paul Simon Williams and Simon Dein

Kalpana Dein is a locum consultant forensic psychiatrist working for Essex Forensic Mental Health Service (Runwell Hospital, Wickford, Essex SS11 7XX, UK. Email: kalthomas{at}yahoo.co.uk). She is an executive editor for World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review. Paul Simon Williams is a consultant forensic psychiatrist working for North London Forensic Service. He has interests in outreach services and the interaction between culture and mental health. Simon Dein is an academic psychiatrist at University College London. He has written on religion and health and is the Course Director of a Masters degree in culture and health.

There is evidence pointing to a bias in the application of the Mental Health Act 1983 (which is in force in England and Wales). One study found that Black people on in-patient units were four times more likely to have been compulsorily admitted than White people. Furthermore, it has been shown that compulsory admissions to secure units are 2.9–5.6 times higher for Black than for White patients. Any understanding of this bias necessitates an examination of the attitudes of mental health professionals towards Africans and African–Caribbeans. Here we discuss possible contributory factors and examine a number of initiatives that have been instituted in order to tackle this problem.


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