Mental Health Review Tribunals

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 96-97
Author(s):  
D. F. Bermingham

Prior to the 1983 Mental Health Act (MHA), Mental Health Tribunals (MHRTs) did not have the power to order delayed discharge of a patient appealing against a section, although there was evidence that tribunals used the power of adjournment to allow time for follow-up to be arranged. This power was used more often with patients in special hospitals where the option of remaining on an informal basis did not exist. Hepworth and others advocated giving tribunals the power of delayed discharge. This was supported by the White Paper (1978) and subsequently became part of the 1983 MHA, together with some increase in the responsibility of the local authorities to provide after care for Section 3 and 37 patients. But the new Act also allowed the appeal of patients on Section 2, while giving no responsibility to the local authority for their after-care. It was difficult to see how delayed discharge could be implemented as an after-care safeguard for Section 2 patients who would often have only two weeks or so of their Section to run in any case. With this in mind, I studied all cases appearing before the MHRT in a general psychiatric hospital in the two years following the new Act.

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 124-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Clarke ◽  
Conor Duggan ◽  
Clive R. Hollin ◽  
Nick Huband ◽  
Lucy McCarthy ◽  
...  

Aims and methodWe examined readmission to psychiatric hospital of 550 patients discharged from one medium secure unit over 20 years. Multiple sources were used to obtain readmission data.ResultsReadmission was common, particularly to non-secure psychiatric hospitals. At least 339 patients (61.6%) were readmitted to any psychiatric hospital (mean follow-up 9.5 years), with over a third (37.6%) subsequently being readmitted to medium- or high-security or both. Of those discharged directly to the community, having previous in-patient treatment and a Mental Health Act classification of mental illness were associated with shorter time to first readmission.Clinical implicationsThe long-standing nature of disorders is evident in the high rates of readmission overall and the need for readmission to medium and high secure services, suggesting that these patients require long-term follow-up and support from mental health services.


2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 463-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panos Vostanis

Homeless families are defined as all adults with dependent children who are statutorily accepted by local authorities (housing departments) in the UK, and are usually accommodated for a brief period in voluntary agency, local authority or housing association hostels. This period varies from a few days to several months, although the target for rehousing is usually around 4 to 6 weeks. Some housing departments, particularly in London, also use bed and breakfast accommodation.


1974 ◽  
Vol 125 (584) ◽  
pp. 60-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Payne ◽  
Sarah McCabe ◽  
Nigel Walker

In 1963–4 the Oxford University Penal Research Unit managed to collect information about 90 per cent of the offender-patients who were admitted to N.H.S. and Special Hospitals under hospital orders made by criminal courts: this cohort has been described in Crime and Insanity, Vol. II, by Walker and McCabe (1973). One of the by-products of the follow-up of these offender-patients was a rough and ready scoring system for predicting reconvictions (within a two-year follow-up) of 456 offender-patients who were allowed to leave hospital within a year of admission. A prediction system can be used to assist human decision-making (though it should not be a substitute for it)∗ and can also be used to assess the efficacy of measures—such as after-care—by seeing whether individuals with equal predicted reconviction-rates do better with than without the measure (Mannheim and Wilkins, 1955).


Author(s):  
Paul Veitch

<p>The legal representation of patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 (the Act) by way of public funding is very recent. Prior to the Act legal representation was not commonplace and was not seen as desirable. A Royal Commission report in 1957 commented that “As the proceedings on applications to Mental health Review Tribunals will usually be informal and neither the patient nor the hospital or local authority will usually need to be legally represented...”5 It was the Legal Aid Act 1974 that granted public funding for a solicitor to prepare a case for a Mental health Review Tribunal under the Legal Advice Scheme (the Green Form, remember those uncomplicated days!). This was means-tested but did not grant funding for actual representation. Public funding for representation at the hearing was only granted on 1st December 1982 under ‘Assistance by Way of Representation’. A time span up until today’s date of only 28 years!</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. E9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Zanello ◽  
Johan Pallud ◽  
Nicolas Baup ◽  
Sophie Peeters ◽  
Baris Turak ◽  
...  

Sainte-Anne Hospital is the largest psychiatric hospital in Paris. Its long and fascinating history began in the 18th century. In 1952, it was at Sainte-Anne Hospital that Jean Delay and Pierre Deniker used the first neuroleptic, chlorpromazine, to cure psychiatric patients, putting an end to the expansion of psychosurgery. The Department of Neuro-psychosurgery was created in 1941. The works of successive heads of the Neurosurgery Department at Sainte-Anne Hospital summarized the history of psychosurgery in France.Pierre Puech defined psychosurgery as the necessary cooperation between neurosurgeons and psychiatrists to treat the conditions causing psychiatric symptoms, from brain tumors to mental health disorders. He reported the results of his series of 369 cases and underlined the necessity for proper follow-up and postoperative re-education, illustrating the relative caution of French neurosurgeons concerning psychosurgery.Marcel David and his assistants tried to follow their patients closely postoperatively; this resulted in numerous publications with significant follow-up and conclusions. As early as 1955, David reported intellectual degradation 2 years after prefrontal leucotomies.Jean Talairach, a psychiatrist who eventually trained as a neurosurgeon, was the first to describe anterior capsulotomy in 1949. He operated in several hospitals outside of Paris, including the Sarthe Psychiatric Hospital and the Public Institution of Mental Health in the Lille region. He developed stereotactic surgery, notably stereo-electroencephalography, for epilepsy surgery but also to treat psychiatric patients using stereotactic lesioning with radiofrequency ablation or radioactive seeds of yttrium-90.The evolution of functional neurosurgery has been marked by the development of deep brain stimulation, in particular for obsessive-compulsive disorder, replacing the former lesional stereotactic procedures.The history of Sainte-Anne Hospital’s Neurosurgery Department sheds light on the initiation—yet fast reconsideration—of psychosurgery in France. This relatively more prudent attitude toward the practice of psychosurgery compared with other countries was probably due to the historically strong collaboration between psychiatrists and neurosurgeons in France.


1916 ◽  
Vol 62 (256) ◽  
pp. 151-167
Author(s):  
A. Hume Griffith

Hitherto a difficulty in forming a just opinion as to the value of the colony treatment of epileptics has been the inability to keep trace of the patients after they have left the Colony. In connection with the Lingfield Colony (which has nearly 300 epileptic patients), an attempt has now been made to follow up, and obtain a report upon, those patients who have left the Colony during the last 4½ years. To this end a circular was sent to the different local authorities asking for their co-operation in this investigation, and thanks are due to them for their prompt response. The number of cases inquired into totalled 101. The number of reports actually received was 100, but 20 of these were blank, the patients having disappeared without leaving an address.


1977 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Henderson ◽  
Tudor Bostock

SummaryA description is given of the coping behaviour of seven men who survived a shipwreck and were not rescued until 13 days later. The principal behaviours shown by the men were attachment ideation, drive to survive, modelling, prayer and hope. Particular attention is paid to the first of these, and consideration given to its likely origins in behavioural evolution. It is proposed as a hitherto inadequately recognized coping behaviour. A follow-up examination 12 to 24 months later showed that five of the seven men available had developed substantial psychiatric disorder, while by contrast one was not only well but claimed to have been enriched by the experience. Exposure to extreme adversity or disaster may have long-term effects on mental health. Further longitudinal studies of disaster victims are necessary for the design of informed after-care.


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