Member

Placing this wording in the Bill will ensure that the hospital environment is taken into account when deciding whether appropriate medical treatment can be delivered. Too often, the appropriateness of the hospital environment—as I have said, particularly for autistic people and people with learning disabilities—is not given primacy in decision-making or, frankly, considered at all. Reviews of the use of restrictive practice in hospitals have concluded that many ward environments are chaotic and non-therapeutic, and often trigger behaviour that necessitates the use of segregation and restraint. This can then lead to further behaviours that challenge and cause a decline in mental health, meaning that the person does not get better, which is what we are all looking for, but ends up being hospitalised for what can feel like a very long time indeed.