Mental healthcare: change is needed at the top to address care inequalities

Having more black and minority ethnic mental health nurses and leaders could improve patient outcomes

Black and minority ethnic (BME) people are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act (NHS Digital 2108a) than white people, and nearly one in four (23%) admissions to mental health hospitals involve people from a non-white background, even though they represent only one in seven (14%) of the UK population (Institute of Race Relations 2019).

Furthermore, while BME people are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders, they are also less likely to obtain treatment than the white British group and less likely to experience positive outcomes after mental health service care (Wessely 2018).

Sadly this is not a new phenomenon, but surely in 2019 this