NHS Providers responds to new report on racism and mental health

10 October 2023

Responding to a new report by the Centre for Mental Health and King's College London, which shows how parents' experiences of racism can affect their children's mental health, and vice versa, Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers said:

"Racism has a profound and negative impact on a person's mental health and wellbeing. This is often long-lasting and, within families, can lead to generational trauma.

"Tackling race discrimination is a priority across hospital, ambulance, mental health and community services, but more can and must be done.

"It is unacceptable that people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds have, on average, worse mental health care access, experiences and outcomes than white people.

"As anchor institutions, trusts' work to embed anti-racism can have wide-reaching benefits for staff, patients and the communities they serve.

"Early intervention and prevention in childhood can reduce health inequalities and break the negative cycle of inter-generational experience.

"The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework is a positive step towards improving ethnic minority community experiences of mental health care.

"We look forward to its mandatory rollout across mental health trusts next year."