Demographics
Mental Health
Mental health evidence routes, service contact, detention, outcomes and lived experience.
Mental Health Act data
Track detention, Community Treatment Orders and ethnicity breakdowns with NHS Digital methodology notes.
Open ->Access and outcomes
Separate service access, diagnosis, treatment experience and social determinants rather than collapsing them into one claim.
Open ->Lived experience
Use qualitative evidence ethically and label it separately from population statistics.
Open ->DescriptionBlack British mental health statistics: NHS detentions, Section 136, Community Treatment Orders, talking therapies access, and Mental Health Act reform. NHS Digital data.
Overview
Mental Health Act Detentions
Section 136 — Police Detentions
Community Treatment Orders
Routes into Mental Health Services
Access to Talking Therapies
Black Young People
Mental Health Workforce
Mental Health Act Reform
Black British Mental Health Statistics | NHS Detentions & MHA Data 2023
Black communities in the UK face the most severe mental health disparities of any ethnic group — higher rates of compulsory detention, lower access to voluntary and talking therapies, greater reliance on crisis and police-led pathways, and the most extreme overrepresentation in Community Treatment Orders. These disparities have been documented across successive NHS datasets for over two decades and have not narrowed despite repeated government reviews and NHS commitments.
Black people are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white people — the highest rate of any ethnic group in England. In 2022/23, Black or Black British people accounted for around 40% of all Mental Health Act detentions despite making up approximately 4% of the population. This disparity has persisted for over a decade with no meaningful improvement.
Black people are four to five times more likely than white people to be detained by police under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act — a power allowing officers to remove someone from a public place to a place of safety. In 2022/23, Black or Black British people accounted for approximately 17% of all Section 136 detentions in England. This reflects both the over-policing of Black communities and the failure of community mental health services to intervene before crisis point.
Sources:
labelBlack / Black British
labelWhite
labelMixed / Other
labelAsian / Asian British
labelWhite British
labelWhite (reference)
year2016
year2017
year2018
year2019
year2020
year2021
year2022
year2023
labelMental Health
labelBlack share of MHA detentions (%)
~40% of detentions
~38%
~12%
~10%
88%
5%
4%
3%
~17% of S.136 detentions
~68%
~8%
~7%
11× rate
2.5× rate
2× rate
1× (reference)
GP referral
A&E / crisis
Police (S.136)
Self-referral
Other
87%
6%
description
canonical
og:type
article
og:url
og:title
Black British Mental Health Statistics | NHS Detentions & MHA Data
og:description
Black British mental health statistics: NHS detentions, Section 136, Community Treatment Orders, talking therapies access, and Mental Health Act reform.
UK Black Demographics
twitter:card
summary
twitter:url
twitter:title
twitter:description
NHS detentions, Section 136, Community Treatment Orders data for Black British communities. NHS Digital data.
application/ld+json
@context
@graph
@type
BreadcrumbList
itemListElement
ListItem
position
name
item
Health
Dataset
Black British Mental Health Statistics
Data on Black British mental health outcomes including NHS detentions, Section 136, Community Treatment Orders, and access to talking therapies.
keywords
Black British mental health
NHS Mental Health Act ethnicity
Black Section 136 UK
Community Treatment Orders ethnicity
Black mental health statistics
creator
Organization
NHS Digital / CQC
dateModified
Detention rates, crisis pathways, talking therapy access, Community Treatment Orders, workforce representation, and legislative reform — drawn from NHS Digital, ONS, and the NHS Race and Health Observatory.
4×
More likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act vs white people
NHS Digital 2023
11×
Higher rate of Community Treatment Orders vs white patients
4–5×
Higher rate of Section 136 police detentions vs white people
Black people accessing NHS talking therapies (IAPT)
mb-14
More likely to be detained vs white people
~40%
Black share of all MHA detentions (4% of population)
No change
Disparity has not improved over the past decade
NHS Digital 2016–2023
Mental Health Act Detentions by Ethnicity (%)
NHS Digital — MHA Statistics 2022/23
Share of MHA Detentions by Ethnicity
source=
unit=
Higher Section 136 detention rate vs white people
~17%
Black share of all Section 136 detentions (4% of population)
Section 136 Police Detentions by Ethnicity — Share of Total (%)
NHS Digital — Mental Health Act Statistics 2022/23
label=
href=
Higher
Black people presenting via crisis routes vs planned care — A&E, police, and emergency detention
NHS Race and Health Observatory 2023
mt-6
black
Routes into Mental Health Services — Black vs White (%)
NHS Race and Health Observatory 2023; NHS Mental Health Services Dataset 2022/23
xKey=
Black people among NHS Talking Therapies referrals
Lower
Recovery rates for Black patients who do access talking therapies vs white patients
NHS Talking Therapies (IAPT) Referrals by Ethnicity — Share of Total (%)
NHS Digital — Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression 2022/23
Higher risk
Mental health difficulties among Black children vs white peers
NHS MHCYP Survey 2023
CAMHS referral rates for Black children despite higher need
School / YJS
Most common referral route to CAMHS for Black young people (not GP)
Black clinical psychologists in England — unchanged over the past decade
British Psychological Society 2022
Clinical Psychologists in England by Ethnicity — Share of Total (%)
British Psychological Society Workforce Data 2022