Women in Crisis: how women and girls are being failed by the Mental Health Act

Women and girls detained under the Mental Health Act are taking their lives at “appalling” rates, according to a report from Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk.

Women in Crisis

New figures, obtained by Agenda from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), show that women’s self-inflicted deaths overtook men’s for the first time in 2015 and did so again in 2016.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths of females under 20, including one girl under 17, was more than double the number of males in that age range.

Katharine Sacks-Jones, Chief Executive of Agenda, said: “It is appalling that we are seeing so many self-inflicted deaths of women and girls detained under the Mental Health Act.

“Many will have been detained precisely because they were at risk to themselves, yet the Mental Health Act is not keeping them safe and is failing to support and protect them.”

Download the report.