The Care Programme Approach, sexual violence and clinical practice in mental health

Research in Sexual Assault Referral Centres has shown that 40% of those attending are known to mental health services. The question we posed in this study was to what extent do mental health services know about this group? This was a pertinent question to ask as in 2008 the Department of Health (DH) amended the Care Programme Approach (CPA) to include a question on sexual abuse/violence as part of the overall assessment.

To assess the extent to which Mental health Trusts were implementing DH guidance on the CPA in relation to assessment of sexual violence and abuse.

1. Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were sent to all Mental Health Trusts. 2. The Information base at the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) was interrogated as Trusts can make returns on this CPA question, however it is not mandatory.

1. The FOI requests revealed that: only 66% of staff were trained to 'ask the question' (range 35-100%) and only five out of 53 Trusts audited whether the question was asked. 2. The HSCIC data revealed that in 2014/15 there were 335,727 people in the CPA in England and there was a record in only 17% of cases of the question being asked. Over half (57%) of the 69 providers who did not submit any information on the indicator in 2014/15 as well as, for those 30 providers who did submit information, the data field was only 41% complete.

The impetus for 'asking the question' first established in 2008 with the establishment of eight pilot training programmes, has been lost. It is clear that Trusts are not training adequate number of staff nor are they returning useable data to HSCIC. If 40% of people attending SARCs are known to mental health services we suspect that few staff in mental health trusts known much about such a referral. Research shows convincingly that sexual violence and abuse plays a clear role in the aetiology of mental health disorders. A history of such violence/abuse should be always established (or otherwise).