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Wide variations in regional use of community orders: Courts failing to use option of mental health treatment for offenders outside prison, reveals Sainsbury report
People sentenced to community orders are not getting mental health treatment when they need it, according to research published by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health. The Community Order and the Mental Health Treatment Requirement, by Linda Seymour and Max Rutherford, found that less than one per cent of people issued with a community order had a requirement for mental health treatment in their sentence. Of the 120,000 community orders issued in 2006, only 725 included a mental health treatment requirement [MHTR]. This compares with over 11,000 for drug treatment, 75,000 for supervision and more than 62,000 for unpaid work. The research also found wide variations in the use of community orders in 2006. The London probation region issued 201 MHTRs while both Northamptonshire and North Yorkshire each issued just two. The report concludes that the barriers to the use of the MHTR are likely to include difficulties assessing a person’s eligibility for mental health treatment, a lack of access to mental health services for offenders living in the community and the need for an offender to consent publicly to treatment for highly stigmatised mental health problems. Linda Seymour, Sainsbury Centre head of policy, said: “The mental health treatment requirement is clearly not being used fully or consistently. It is estimated that half of people on community orders have at least one mental health problem. Few will be receiving the support they need for those problems. Many more offenders with mental health problems are being imprisoned because judges see no alternative for them in the community. “Our research will continue to find out why the MHTR is so scarcely used and what could be changed to offer more offenders with mental health problems a viable alternative to prison.” For further information and to read the The Community Order and the Mental Health Treatment Requirement report online, visit the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health website at: www.scmh.org.uk. From your browser | Email the page | Email the page link | Print the page | Add page to favourites ········································································································································
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