MP criticises 'patronising' mental health care

Jen Craft lives with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and bipolar disorder

An MP with bipolar disorder said care she received had been "patronising, reductive, inconsistent and non-existent".

Jen Craft, the Labour MP for Thurrock in Essex, created her own treatment plan due to her concerns about existing mental health support.

She called for an urgent overhaul of community mental health care during a debate in the House of Commons.

"I made the decision that I deserved to live and I deserved to live well - and also that my children deserved their mum," Craft said.

MPs were discussing an amendment to the Mental Health Act, which aimed to reduce the use of detention and give people more rights over their care.

Craft was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) as well as bipolar disorder by her 20s, but said she only received "good" care in exceptional circumstances.

"I have never been asked what it is that I want from treatment, what it is that I want for my life and how I can be helped to get there," she told Parliament.

"I have received care that is patronising, reductive, inconsistent and non-existent."

The debate heard arguments for ending the use of police cells to hold people who were being detained for mental-health reasons.

Last year 34,685 people were detained under those circumstances, the majority to health settings such as a hospital A&E department.

Craft said a fear of losing her liberty meant she had to "tread a fine line" when proving she was ill.

"I know that more often than not, treatment is based not on therapeutic care but on risk management," she added.

"Like thousands of others, I have had to create my own care package and my own route to treatment.

"But, I am very aware that my ability to do this is based on a number of privileges, in no small part a very supportive family, which so many do not have."

The Labour government's Health Secretary Wes Streeting previously said the "outdated" system needed changes to bring it "in line with the 21st Century".