Access All: Disability News and Mental Health - Why are black people more likely to be sectioned?

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Black people are four more times likely to be sectioned compared to white people, according to the mental health charity, Mind. That number is rising, but why?

As the new Mental Health Act 2025 rumbles through Parliament, hoping to address some of these inequalities, we meet Shocka, a former member of the grime collective, Marvell. He has been sectioned four times and tells us what time in a psychiatric unit can feel like.

Kadra Abdinasir, Associate Director of Policy for the Centre for Mental Health, joins us too to talk about why a framework around racial inequalities is crucial to improved mental health outcomes for black people and other minority groups, and the worry she and others have that it won’t be included as a priority in the Act and legally binding.

Actress and model Ellie Goldstein has made a strong start in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing competition with her professional partner, Vito Coppola. We go behind the fake tan and sequins with Sam, who has learning disabilities, and his dance teacher, Jo Banham from Sensational Care Provisions, to find out how the duo might be pacing themselves, the moves that might not work for them and how they are managing to learn a new dance every week.

Presented by Emma Tracey with Kirsteen Knight
Sound mixed by Dave O’Neill
Produced by Emma Tracey and Kevin Satizabal Carrascal
Series producer is Beth Rose
Editor is Damon Rose

Published on Wednesday, 8th October 2025.

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