BASW response to draft Mental Health Bill

BASW drew on the perspectives of our members who are AMHPs, as well as social workers who come across mental health issues in the course of their work more generally, in making this submission. While agreeing with the principles of the draft legislation (for example, reducing detentions, therapeutic benefit, increasing CTOs) our response addresses the practical challenges in making the legislation effective, for example, the importance of the social model in mental health support, early intervention preventing admission in the first place, inequalities impacting on services, the interface of the mental health and mental capacity legislation and workforce issues.