Families launch legal fight to end MHA detentions of people with learning disabilities and autism

New Panorama footage showed psychological abuse, threats of violence, and intimidation experienced by people with learning disabilities and or autism.

Families have launched a legal campaign to end the “national scandal” of people with autism and learning disabilities from being detained under the Mental Health Act.

The parents are concerned that the Mental Health Act is being used to detain people with autism and learning disabilities, often in mental health hospitals, also known as assessment and treatment units (ATUs), even where they do not have a mental illness.

Campaigners want the government to remove autism and learning disabilities from the definition of what constitutes a “mental disorder” under the legislation.