Rob Holland, Director of National Autistic Society Scotland said:

BBC Disclosure Scotland’s Locked in Hospital has shined a light on the scandal of 300 autistic people and people with a learning disability trapped for years in institutions against their will and the wishes of their families. This must end.

This powerful documentary focuses on four young men whose lives have been forever changed, through experiences of seclusion, restraint, violence and over medication, within environments often wholly unsuitable to their needs.

Hospitals are not homes but that has become the reality for many, with 40 people having spent more than 10 years living in secure hospitals, often when they were supposed to be there for a matter of weeks or months to be assessed and treated for mental health needs. Furthermore, many are “delayed discharge” – that is to say professionals believe they can leave but this is prevented due to a lack of specialist care and support within communities.

The documentary adds much needed impetus to the Scottish Government’s Coming Home strategy which aims to ensure that by March 2024 placements within hospitals are only ever made through the choice of the individual or family and that those that require treatment do not become stuck in the system. 

To reach that goal, a huge amount of work is needed to develop appropriate specialist care and support within communities in Scotland. Furthermore, it is critical that reforms to the Scottish Mental Health Act are accelerated.

Autism is not a “mental disorder”, and as the programme highlighted, attempts to treat autistic people in psychiatric wards often makes things worse. The foundation for better support often begins with a low arousal environment and hospitals struggle to provide this leading to increasing use of statutory powers including sectioning. We urgently need these reforms to the Scottish Mental Health Act to put human rights and the interests of the individual at the very heart of the law.