There are 3,000 people with learning disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorder who are in an inpatient setting for the purposes of assessment, care and treatment in the UK, 83% of whom were admitted under the Mental Health Act (1983)[1].  In 2012 the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP 2014) concluded that the focus for clinical quality audits of ATUs should be cultural change, both at the level of organisations and individual healthcare workers, and on the experience of people with a learning disability,their families and carers.

Monday 18th April 2016 saw the start of a week-long campaign which made use of social media to raise awareness about the experiences of people who were receiving healthcare in ATU settings.  The campaign message was that there are 3,000 human stories behind the numbers.  The campaign was led by families of people who were detained in ATUs.  Over the 7days the campaign ran, 7 families published 7 stories about their family members.  The stories were published on adedicated blog site - https://theatuscandal.wordpress.com/    

The campaign used social media to distribute messages and engage a wide audience who were invited to take action during the 7 days to create new additional content and contributions.  Content generated during the campaign week was posted on the 7 Days of Action Facebook site or on Twitter tagged with the #7DaysofAction hashtag.  During the campaign week 72,580 hits were recorded of people having accessed the campaign blog.

Since the campaign week more families whose family member is in an Assessment and Treatment Unit have come forwards and want to share details oftheir experience of inpatient units for people with a learning disability.  The 10th October 2016 will be a second week of action, this time featuring 36 families who will be sharing their stories about:

1. What led to their family member to be detained in an ATU?

2. How long was their family member detained for?

3. How far was the ATU from their usual home?

The tweet chat will run during the week of the 7 Days of Action campaignin October 2016.  It will examine participant’s views and experience in the following areas:

1. What are the circumstances which lead to an admission to an ATU?
2. What examples exist of least restrictive alternatives which are successfully avoiding admission to ATUs?  (How are pre-admission Care & Treatment Reviews supporting admission avoidance?)
3. What is the evidence base for the challenging behavioural therapies treatments provided in ATU settings?
4. Whatis the evidence base for the mental health therapies which are provided in ATU settings?
5. What best practice exists of involving family members and carers in care planning and support for people?
6. What are the barriers to discharging people from ATUs and where are there examples of successful approaches to stepping people down from inpatient units to community based support?

References 

Royal College ofPsychiatrists (2013). People with learning disability and mental health,behavioural or forensic problems: the role of in-patient services. http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/FR%20ID%2003%20for%20website.pdf

Royal College ofPsychiatrists (2014). National Audit of Learning Disabilities—Feasibility Study(NALD-FS): Findings of the primary and secondary care audit. London: RoyalCollege of Psychiatrists Centre for Quality Improvement. [Online]. http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/Final%20report.pdf

Sheehan, R,Gandesha, A, Hassiotis, A, Gallagher, P, Burnell, M, Jones, G, Kerr, M, Hall,I, Chaplin, R & Crawford, M J (2016). An Audit of the Quality of InpatientCare for Adults with Learning Disability in the UK. British Medical JournalOpen. [Online]. http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/4/e010480.full#ref-32

*Additional EBP Reference added 5/10/16 - James, E. Neary, M and Hatton, C. (2016) Report on the First 7 Days of Action CeDR Briefing Paper 2016:1 Lancaster: Centre for Disability Research To be published on 10th October 2016 Available at http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/cedr/home-page/publications/