The 1983 Mental Health Act in Five Local Authorities: a Study of the Practice of Approved Social Workers

1992 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Hatfield ◽  
Hadi Mohamad ◽  
Peter Huxley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Mental Health Act

Social workers and the Mental Health Act 1983

BMJ ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 291 (6510) ◽  
pp. 1726-1727
Author(s):  
I G Bronks
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Mental Health Act

scholarly journals Section 136 and the Police

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 224-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dunn ◽  
Thomas Fahy
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Worker ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Psychiatric Training ◽  
Public Place ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
Police Station ◽  
Mental Health Act

Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 is a controversial section. It authorises a police constable, often with no psychiatric training, to take a mentally disordered person from a public place to a place of safety, usually a hospital or a police station, so that he or she may be assessed by a doctor and a social worker within a 72 hour period. There have been several studies looking at this section from the point of view of psychiatrists, social workers, and other interested parties, in particular MIND. The aim of this study was to find out from the police whether or not problems arose during their dealings with people whom they had placed on section 136.

Jurisprudential Aspects of the ‘Right’ to Retake Absconders from Mental Hospitals in England and Wales

1995 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-230
Author(s):  
Benjamin Andoh
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Mental Hospital ◽  
Hospital Staff ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Mental Hospitals ◽  
Mental Health Act ◽  
Statutory Authority ◽  
The Right

Statutory authority for retaking absconders from mental hospitals has existed ever since county asylums (the forerunners of mental hospitals) were first built in the nineteenth century. Today under the Mental Health Act, 1983 that ‘right’ can be exercised by the police, mental hospital staff, approved social workers, etc. This article looks at jurisprudential aspects of that ‘right’. It points out that ‘right’ actually means ‘power’ (not ‘privilege’, ‘claim’ or ‘immunity’). In addition it argues that the Mental Health Act, 1983 does only confer a power (rather than impose a duty) to retake absconders from mental hospitals and that there should not be statutory or other imposition of such a duty.

scholarly journals Something less than ready access to the courts: Section 139 & Local Authorities

2014 ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
David Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
High Court ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
Mental Health Act ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Ready Access

<p align="LEFT">Psychiatric patients who wish to bring legal proceedings against those responsible for their detention or treatment can face an obstacle of which better-favoured litigants are free: because of a provision contained in section 139 of the Mental Health Act 1983 they will often have to obtain the prior leave of the High Court.</p><p align="LEFT">This paper will consider the origins of that provision. It will then focus on two of its key elements - the requirement for leave itself and the exceptions to it - and will analyse their impact upon subsequent caselaw and upon current legal practice.</p><p align="LEFT">In so doing, this paper will describe an anomaly which continues to bedevil intending claimants, and will assess the extent to which it is attributable to the legal and political events of a generation ago, and to a legislative impulse which is even more keenly felt today.</p>

scholarly journals The working of the 1983 Mental Health Act: the experience of patients, relatives, psychiatrists, general practitioners and social workers involved in compulsory admission

1989 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 477-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Webster ◽  
Christine Dean
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
General Practitioners ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Compulsory Admission ◽  
Hospital Managers ◽  
Mental Health Act

The 1983 Mental Health Act was introduced to increase the safeguards of the civil liberties of patients. One of the new provisions is that it is now the statutory responsibility of hospital managers to inform detained patients of their rights; this is done by giving them a leaflet explaining the appeal procedures. Doubt has been expressed (Dunlop, 1979) about whether this is an efficient means of conveying information to acutely ill patients.

scholarly journals The draft Mental Health Act in Sudan

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Saeed ◽  
Saoud Sultan ◽  
Abdelazim Ali
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Mental Health Act ◽  
The Uk

At a workshop in 2012 in Khartoum, attended by Sudanese psychiatrists based in both the UK and Sudan, as well as psychologists, social workers and lawyers from Sudan and elsewhere, a draft Mental Health Act for Sudan was approved; it is due to be submitted to the Sudanese Parliament. We give a summary of the draft Act and outline some of the areas that need further discussion.

Social workers and the Mental Health Act 1983

BMJ ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 291 (6505) ◽  
pp. 1350-1350
Author(s):  
G. J Lodge
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Mental Health Act

The Mental Health Act and its agencies – are they working together?

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 287-288
Author(s):  
Stephen P. Tyrer ◽  
Timothy C. Jerram
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
East Division ◽  
Mental Health Act ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Health Review

The 1983 Mental Health Act gave increased responsibility to the Mental Health Act Commission and the Mental Health Review Tribunal to ensure safeguards in the treatment and detention of patients compulsorily admitted to hospital. Although most are agreed that the civil rights of patients admitted to hospital against their will are better protected under the new Act, some psychiatrists are irritated by the necessity to involve these bodies in what they regard as primarily clinical management. The North-East Division of the Royal College of Psychiatrists believed that debate on this issue might benefit both psychiatrists and others involved and this topic was chosen for the Annual Meeting of the Division in York on 28 September 1990. The meeting attracted other mental health care professionals and of the 144 participants almost one-third were not psychiatrists, but mainly social workers and psychologists. The sessions were chaired by the President of the College and Professor Donald Eccleston.

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