3. The lack of information on treatments

4. The number of professionals involved in care

5. Hospital food

From the experience of staff behaviour, users disliked:

1. The lack of understanding

2. Inappropriate advice

3. Assumptions, judgements and stereotypes about needs and preferences

4. Lack of time to listen

5. Non-verbal disapproval/ lack of patience

6. Lack of interest

In 1994 the black experience of psychiatric services over the past 20 years was summed up in the
document Race, Gender and Equal Opportunities[1994].

Black people are more likely than white

1. to be removed by police to a place of safety under section 136 MHA 1983

2. to be detained in hospital under section 2, 3 and 4 MHA 1983 in case of emergency
admissions

3. to be diagnosed assuffering from schizophrenia or other forms of psychotic illness

4. to be detained in locked wards of psychiatric hospitals

5. to receive higher doses of medication

Black people are less likely than white

6. to receive suitable diagnoses and treatments for possible mental illnesses at an earlier
stage

7. to receive treatment such as psychotherapy or counselling

This document also uses the relevant literature to back up each statement and it makes very
interesting reading. Several statistics stand point for me. On my Rampton placement I was
amazed at the number of black people in the prison. Raised Voices states that 19% of inmates in
high-risk and medium-risk secure units are black, which leads me to ask how many black people
are in this country: approximately 4.5 million, 7% of the population. According to Raised Voices,
African-Caribbeans are four times more likely than whites to be diagnosed with schizophrenia
([1994] p13).

D. McGovern and Andrew Cope [1991] working with hospital admissions in Birmingham
discovered that between 1979 and 1984 almost all the second-generation African-Caribbean

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