Sheffield MP raises concerns about use of restraint on young people with eating disorders
A growing number are being treated on general hospital wards - where the use of restraint DOESN'T have to be recorded
A South Yorkshire MP is raising concerns about a growing number of young people apparently being restrained and force-fed while being treated for eating disorders on normal hospital wards.
When that happens on a mental health ward it must be recorded, but Olivia Blake says a lack of specialist beds means more patients are ending up on general wards where they're treated by staff who aren’t trained in restraint and aren’t required to record its use.
The Sheffield Hallam MP has now written to the government calling for this issue to be looked at. She’s hoping to table an amendment to the Mental Health Bill when it comes to Parliament.
“Tier 4 beds are impossible to get so there’s been a lot of young people ending up in what we call medical wards rather than mental health wards,” says Olivia.
“And that’s really problematic because staff in the medical wards haven’t got the qualifications, they haven’t done the training around mental health.
“This has led to some really concerning things around the way in which children are restrained in order to feed, which is a really traumatic event to happen.
“If you are restrained in a mental health bed then it has to get reported and recorded. Whereas if you have the same condition but you just happen to be in a medical bed, at the moment that data’s not being captured. So myself and other people are very concerned about this, professionals that I’ve been speaking to.
“It comes down to resources, staffing, and access to early intervention. I really want to see the government putting that money into the preventative side, but also recognising that we do have a crisis at the moment and that more needs to be done to make sure beds are available.”
Olivia Blake is taking part in a debate this morning to mark Eating Disorders Awareness Week and will speak about what she calls the ‘crisis’ facing South Yorkshire services.
The South Yorkshire Eating Disorders Association (SYEDA) told us the numbers of referrals its getting are ‘incredibly high’, with 44 in January alone.
“We are asking people to wait up to five months for treatment in many cases simply because we just don’t have the capacity,” says chief executive Chris Hood.
“We are currently treating about 130 people a week, but we’ll also simultaneously have about 130 – 140 people on a waiting list."
Chris is welcoming Olivia Blake’s campaign and agrees there should be some national accountability and recording when it comes to the use of restraint in general medical settings.
“It’s really unfair on the staff concerned because they’re often having to deal with very distressing, very risky situations, and are acting in a way that is driven by care for the individual,” he says.
“An example is security staff – I think the assumption behind those posts is that they’re there to deal with unruly people who turn up drunk to A&E. What I don’t think any of them anticipated they’d be doing is restraining a very unwell person because they are refusing to eat.
“We’ve certainly had conversations with parents who are very distressed to find that their loved one is being restrained in that way. And I think there is a difference between the approach that takes place in specialist inpatient facilities than the situation in general hospitals.
“That’s not the hospitals’ fault, that is a reflection on the fact there are more people who are very unwell and there aren’t the specialist beds.”
He wants to see a much bigger focus on treating more patients at home and in the community instead of in hospital.