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Abolitionist Approaches to Health

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Medact

What is an abolitionist approach to health?

 The Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group (originally named the ‘Securitisation of Health Group’) is a space for health workers and campaigners to challenge policing, criminalisation and securitisation practices within and beyond sites of healthcare.  

We recognise that policing is harmful to health, and causes disproportionate harm to Black and people of colour,  working class, and other minoritised communities. We also recognise that violent practices within healthcare such as restraint, detention, and treatment without consent – especially in mental health care – are not restricted to external actors such as police. Health workers are often enactors of violent practices, and so must actively resist healthcare’s embedded carcerality.

The group’s current priority campaign is calling for the repeal of Prevent in the NHS, the adoption of evidence-based public health policies, and the redressal of harms caused by Prevent. We organise as three working groups: Workshops & Public Engagement, Policy & Lobbying, FOIs & Research.

“Abolition, as a social movement and system of thought, calls for an end to policing and incarceration, and seeks to build alternative structures in their place. Abolition is not simply about absence but rather the collective establishment of systems of care and mutual aid that eliminate the need for carceral approaches to interpersonal harm.” – Esther Kaner, Abolition Medicine: Dismantling Carceral Logics in Healthcare (2021)

“Policing is a public health concern because it is a tool of racist and discriminatory power structures, actively harming the physical, mental, social and emotional health and well-being of populations, particularly Black and people of colour, and other minoritised populations. Additionally, criminalisation and punitive responses to social problems reproduce the social and economic conditions that result in criminalised behaviours, undermining healthy communities.” – Abi Deivanayagam et al., Policing is a threat to public health and human rights (2021).

Resisting the Securitisation of Health: End Prevent in the NHS 📣

The ‘securitisation of health’ refers to the introduction of policing and state ‘security’ practices into sites of healthcare. A number of policing and counter-extremism measures are embedded by the government into UK health services, which at times require health workers to work closely with the police and other security agencies. These measures undermine therapeutic relationships, confidentiality and trust in health workers – while also drawing health services and workers into becoming an arm of policing and counter-terror agencies.

Resisting securitisation is one of many abolitionist approaches to healthcare. As health workers committed to health justice, we call for care, not surveillance or criminalisation.  

Ending the Prevent Duty in the NHS has been the priority campaign for this area of work since its inception. The Prevent Duty is part of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy, with the stated aim of identifying “vulnerability to radicalisation”. Health workers are expected to make a speculative assessment, which involves trusting one’s “instinct”, before referring patients to counter-terror policing. From our research, we know that Prevent disproportionately targets Muslim people, and evidence shows that as a policy it is racist, exacerbates health inequalities and is a source of physical & psychological harm for marginalised people. 

We’re calling for the repeal of Prevent in the NHS, the adoption of evidence-based public health policies, and the redressal of harms caused by Prevent.

Broader abolitionist work

Though our priority campaign focuses on the Prevent Duty in healthcare, we’re also developing and practising abolitionist approaches to health in other ways.

  1. We amplify research uncovering policing, criminalisation and securitisation in healthcare, and the health impacts of these policies and practices. (i.e. Medact Research into Serenity Integrated Mentoring, Vulnerability Support Hubs, Counter Terrorism Clinical Consultancy Service.)
  2. We collaborate with, and extend our solidarity to, campaigns resisting other forms of policing, criminalisation and securitisation practices within and beyond sites of healthcare. (i.e. Safety Not Surveillance Coalition – resisting predictive policing)
  3. We facilitate spaces for political education on abolitionist approaches to health.

Join Us!

The Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group (AAHG) is for health workers interested in working on these issues through campaigning, lobbying and research. New members are welcome! Sign up to receive email updates from the campaign group, or register to join one of our monthly group meetings.

If you have any questions or concerns about attending, please email our Campaign Lead Sarah Lasoye at [email protected].

To learn more about abolitionist approaches to healthcare:

For more on the kind of work we have done on policing and counter-extremism measures in healthcare: