ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2016
Ethnicity and detention: are Black and minority ethnic (BME) groups disproportionately detained under the Mental Health Act 2007?
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Ethnic variations in compulsory detention under the Mental Health Act: a systematic review and meta-analysis of international data.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Ethnic inequalities and pathways to care in psychosis in England: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2018Pooled it
- The association between continuity of care and readmission to hospital in patients with severe psychosis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2016Trial
- Race, restriction, risk and reconviction: findings from an England and Wales medium secure cohort.Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law · 2026Article
- Ethnicity and involuntary hospitalisation: a study of intersectional effects.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Area-level factors associated with variation in involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation across England: a cross-sectional, ecological study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- "I am not a priority": ethnic minority experiences of navigating mental health support and the need for culturally sensitive services during and beyond the pandemic.BMJ mental health · 2025Article
- A co-produced service evaluation of ethnic minority community service user experiences of a specialist mental health service during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Article
- Article
- "Crazy person is crazy person. It doesn't differentiate": an exploration into Somali views of mental health and access to healthcare in an established UK Somali community.International journal for equity in health · 2020Article
- Understanding increasing rates of psychiatric hospital detentions in England: development and preliminary testing of an explanatory model.BJPsych open · 2020Article
- Patients' experiences of assessment and detention under mental health legislation: systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis.BJPsych open · 2019Article
- Effect of Job Strain on Job Burnout, Mental Fatigue and Chronic Diseases among Civil Servants in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Article
- A Mental Health Survey of Different Ethnic and Occupational Groups in Xinjiang, China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeThere is substantial evidence to suggest that Black and minority ethnic (BME) patients are disproportionately detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA). We examined ethnic differences in patients assessed for detention and explored the effect of ethnicity after controlling for confounders.
methodsA prospective study of all MHA assessments conducted in 1 year (April 2009-March 2010) within Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, UK. Proportion of assessments and detentions within denominator population of service users and regional populations were calculated. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine which variables were associated with the outcome of MHA assessment and the role of ethnicity.
resultsOf the 1115 assessments, 709 led to detentions (63.58 %). BME ethnic groups were statistically more likely to be assessed and detained under the MHA as compared to Whites, both in the service user and the ethnic population estimates in Birmingham, UK. MHA detention was predicted by having a serious mental illness, the presence of risk, older age and living alone. Ethnicity was not associated with detention under the MHA with age, diagnosis, risk and level of social support accounted for.
conclusionThe BME 'disproportionality' in detention rates seems to be due to higher rates of mental illness, greater risk and poorer levels of social support rather than ethnicity per se.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.