Be More Human, Why Mental Health Care is Broken –
and What We Can Do to Fix It
Norman Lamb
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2026, £14.99
Below is an edited extract
I visited Fauzia in 2014 at the request of her family when I was a health minister. She had been stuck in hospital for nearly two years, and I was horrified by what I witnessed – very little access to the outside world, living in a small cell-like room with little natural light, a bed and not much else, regularly placed in seclusion and subject to frequent restraint – all at the age of 15. A review of her care followed and a discharge to a well-run private care organisation in the community.
When I visited her two years later, she was transformed. I asked how often she had been restrained since she left hospital. Not once was the answer. She was cared for by staff trained in how autism affects each individual. She was living a good life.
These experiences really shocked me – particularly the practice of placing a child or an adult alone in a room, isolated from other human beings. Approximately 100 people, at any one time, are held in what is called “long-term segregation” but is, in effect, solitary confinement.
In 2023, Baroness Hollins, a psychiatrist, concluded in her review of this practice: “International consensus across various sectors and disciplines on the harms caused by enforced isolation are scientifically evidenced and compelling, and the consensus is that enforced isolation has no therapeutic benefit.”
A programme I launched as a health minister in 2012, Transforming Care, was intended to dramatically reduce the number of people locked up in institutional care. In over a decade since, it has made some progress but not nearly enough. It’s another unacceptable example of people in very vulnerable situations being failed by the state.
The trigger for this programme were the shocking revelations about abuse at a private hospital, Winterbourne View, from an undercover reporter, Joe Casey, for BBC’s Panorama: “The hitting, slapping, bullying, dousing with water, cruel and often pointless use of physical restraint on people – many with a child-like understanding of the world – all happened in front of my eyes” – and he captured much of it on film. Eleven members of staff were convicted of criminal offences, with six going to prison.
I met parents and siblings of people who had been placed in Winterbourne View. I use the term “placed” advisedly. As the serious case review stated: “Commissioners continued to place people there. Families could not influence the placement decisions.”
No say for parents
Imagine the situation these families faced – no say over where your child is sent. Under reforms to the Mental Health Act, families are supposed to have more say but they have no veto.
One dad, Steve Sollars, described how he had become increasingly concerned about what was happening to his son, Sam. He saw him becoming increasingly “zombie-like”, no doubt a result of antipsychotic medication. Steve’s access to the “hospital” was restricted to the visiting lounge.
He told me how he had raised his concerns with the NHS and the local authority, but nobody listened. He felt guilty that there was nothing he could do for his son. How can we do that to someone? How utterly inhuman.
He saw his son becoming ‘zombie-like’, no doubt a result of antipsychotic medication. His access to the ‘hospital’ was restricted to the visiting lounge
In locked environments, away from the public’s gaze, there is a risk of abuse of power.
