Mailwatch(ed) Forum

‘The biggest rollback of disability rights in a generation’ – Charities respond to Supreme Court ruling

National charities Mencap, Mind, and the National Autistic Society have reacted with alarm to today’s Supreme Court ruling that removes the framework known as Cheshire West.

They warn that it strips fundamental human rights protections from potentially hundreds of thousands of severely disabled people.

The Human Impact

Under this new ruling, multiple vulnerable groups will be impacted across social care and healthcare sectors. If an autistic person with high support needs, someone with a serious mental illness, or a person with a severe learning disability is locked in a care setting and sedated, but does not actively protest, they will no longer be considered "confined" by the state. They will lose their automatic right to independent reviews, a legal advocate, and protection from closed care cultures.

For example, in psychiatric and crisis wards, if an individual experiencing a severe psychiatric crisis, acute psychosis, or clinical depression is admitted to a mental health hospital ward as an "informal patient," they frequently lack the mental capacity to consent to their stay and therefore do not have any of the protections of independent reviews.

Similarly in social care and supported living, a person may lack capacity if they have an acquired brain injury, a severe learning disability, or are an autistic person with high support needs is locked in a care setting, subject to blanket restrictions, or kept under 24/7 continuous supervision.

And in specialised dementia care, an older adult with advanced dementia or a mental health condition may live at home under highly restrictive chemical and physical restraint protocols, with no external checks.

https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/ ... rt-ruling/

As someone with Autism & MH issues, this ruling by the UKSC scares me.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Spoony.