Policy Connect, in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, are holding a virtual symposium regarding Mental Health Act reform and how to improve the experiences of black men detained under the Act.

Black British men are four times more likely then the white population to be detained under the Mental Health Act. They are also ten times more likely to be placed under a community treatment order and more often subject to restraint.

The government has committed to reforming the Act, and putting measures into place to improve experience, increase autonomy and maximise benefit in the least restrictive way possible.

Manchester Metropolitan University, alongside Policy Connect and black men with lived experience of detention under the Act, are carrying out a research project (ImprovE-ACT) to create evidence of interventions which work to improve experience and to create policy recommendations on a national level, feeding into the Act's reform. 

This symposium, featuring the Mental Health and Care Minister Gillian Keegan, will explore the context for Mental Health Act reform and explain government proposals to support black men detained under the Act. Lived experience experts and members of the research team will outline the aims of the research, the role of lived experience in policy making and what must be done to ensure reforms are a success.

For more information or to register, please contact becky.rice [at] policyconnect.org.uk