Doctors discouraged from sectioning black patientsCameron Henderson
Sun, June 7, 2026 at 2:00 AM EDT
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/doctors-discouraged-sectioning-black-patients-060000381.htmlQuote:
NHS doctors are under pressure not to section psychotic black patients to avoid appearing racist.
The Telegraph has uncovered numerous examples of NHS policy documents and mental health bodies calling for detentions of black people to be reduced to tackle inequality.
Doctors have criticised the policies as "scientific illiteracy" and "jumping on bandwagons".
Nine current and former NHS psychiatrists reported being encouraged to limit the number of black patients they section under the Mental Health Act to avoid them being over-represented.
Black people are 3.5 times more likely to be detained by mental health services than white people. In response to this, the NHS has rolled out positive discrimination policies.
However, doctors warned that higher rates were not the result of a racist mental health system, but linked to risk factors such as social disadvantage, living circumstances and migration.
Psychiatrists said restrictions on sectioning mentally ill black patients deprived them of the care they needed and increased the risk to themselves and the wider public.
The former head of a major London trust recalled arguing with an inspector over why the majority of the patients on his acute ward were young black men even though the hospital was located in a majority black area.
Several doctors compared the issue to the grooming gangs scandal, in which police in Rotherham failed to stop groups of mainly south Asian men systematically abusing mostly white working-class teenagers amid fear of being accused of racism.
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