“Access to the right mental health support, and close to home, can make a real difference to people’s human rights. This investment is a welcome opportunity, but human rights must be built into how these services work from the outset.”
The British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) welcomes the Government’s announcement of a £343 million expansion of community mental health support across England, including 100 new community mental health centres and 59 dedicated mental health emergency departments.
The community mental health centres will offer walk-in support without a referral, while the dedicated mental health emergency departments are intended to provide specialist care for people experiencing a mental health crisis outside of busy A&E departments. The first facilities are expected to open this autumn, with further sites following from March 2027.
The Government has described the plans as part of a shift from crisis to prevention, helping people access support earlier and closer to home. From our work with people accessing or trying to access mental health services, and with the practitioners and public bodies, delivering them, we know why this matters.
Why community mental health support matters for human rights
When people cannot access appropriate mental health support early enough, their wellbeing can deteriorate and they can reach crisis point. At that stage, restrictive interventions can be much more likely and people’s legally protected human rights can be put at greater risk.
The right to respect for private and family life (Article 8) protects important parts of our everyday lives, including our physical and mental wellbeing, autonomy and relationships. Delays in receiving appropriate and necessary mental health care can have a significant impact on these areas of someone’s life, and it’s vital that staff providing these public services understand their legal duties to respect, protect and fulfil these rights in practice.
Across our work in health and care, we have seen that when early intervention is missing from mental health support services, people can become increasingly unwell until they reach crisis point, requiring urgent care. It may be that there are greater risks to their physical or mental health, and admission to hospital may be considered.
Once in hospital, restrictive practices can become much more common, affecting a range of other rights. The right to education (Article 2, Protocol 1) could be affected if a child or young person is detained for mental health treatment and unable to continue attending school. In extreme situations, the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3) could be risked where restrictions cause a person to experience serious mental or physical harm. The escalation of many such situations could be avoided where early and effective mental health support in the community is available.
This is why investment in community mental health support is important from a human rights perspective. Supporting people earlier, in the community, can help protect their wellbeing and autonomy and reduce the likelihood of situations escalating to the point of crisis.
The plans will bring mental health and specialists together with GPs, councils and voluntary sector organisations, alongside links to housing and employment support. Many of the organisations named are public authorities with legal duties under the Human Rights Act when making decisions about people’s care.
Putting human rights into practice
The Human Rights Act provides an existing, practical framework for these new services. It can help staff to make person-centred decisions, understand the impact those decisions have on people and consider less restrictive ways of providing support.
But investment in buildings and services alone will not ensure human rights are respected in practice. Staff and leaders across these services need the knowledge, skills and confidence to understand and apply their human rights duties in their everyday work. People accessing mental health support, their families and advocates also need to be meaningfully involved in the decisions that affect them.
Through BIHR’s work with public bodies across community and inpatient mental health services, we have seen the difference this practical approach can make. Staff on a recent BIHR programme with six NHS Trusts told us that deciding whether admission to hospital is the least restrictive option for someone can be challenging.
The Human Rights Act provides a supportive framework for considering those situations case by case, factoring in the impact on the person and exploring whether suitable support can instead be provided in the community.
This is also an important part of implementing changes to mental health law. BIHR is currently working with the Department of Health and Social Care on the new Mental Health Act Code of Practice. We have been clear that changes to mental health legislation must be accompanied by support and investment in high-quality, responsive community mental health services, helping move health and social care towards preventative, human rights-based approaches.
The Government’s new investment provides an important opportunity to put that approach into practice.
As these new services are developed, everyone involved in designing, leading and delivering them should be equipped to use the Human Rights Act as an everyday tool to guide practice that ensures people have a say over their care, and are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.
Explore further:
Stories about human rights and mental health:
Peter’s story: how the right to liberty applies when an informal patient is prevented from leaving a mental health ward
Luke’s story: how the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment applies to the use of restraint in mental health care.