The role of the nearest relative in mental health law

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (21) ◽  
pp. 1296-1297
Author(s):  
Richard Griffith

Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, considers the role of the nearest relative, a statutory friend, appointed for patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983

Author(s):  
Margaret Pedler

<p>This article looks at the role of compulsion in mental health law as it applies to civil patients. It starts by setting out the existing position and the Government’s proposals for reform as set out in the current Green Paper “Reform of the Mental Health Act 1983”. It goes on to consider principles which might be relevant to this area of law and the application of these to the Government proposals. Finally, it looks at the relevance of the European Convention on Human Rights.</p>


Author(s):  
Andrew Walsh ◽  
Simon Steeves

This book has been written to reflect modern ideas about what constitutes good mental health nursing care, and you will see that values such as partnership working within the framework of a therapeutic relationship have been deliberately stressed. However, the role of the mental health nurse has always required some involvement in what is essentially custodial care. It is necessary for us as mental health nurses to try to balance the demands of these two seemingly paradoxical elements of the role of a mental health nurse. This chapter is intended to introduce you to some aspects of mental health law. We have partly based this upon the law as it currently applies in England and Wales but you will notice that we have also tried to include some material from an international perspective. The history of the profession of mental health nursing is inextricably bound up with the story of the rise and fall of the asylum and with institutionalized models of care. It was only following the Macmillan commission, which was set up to investigate allegations of abuse at Prestwich Hospital in 1924, that the term ‘psychiatric nurse’ (which later evolved to mental health nurse, Department of Health 1994) became a commonly used description (Coppock and Hopton 2000). Prior to this time, people working in institutions for the mentally disordered were more oft en referred to as ‘attendants’ or ‘keepers’ (Nolan 1998), and as these names imply, their roles were mostly custodial or supervisory in nature. Mental health nursing has moved away from this limited model of providing ‘care’ but is still unusual amongst other health care professions in that its members continue to be involved in compulsory detention (even though the main responsibility for this rests with the medical profession; Rogers and Pilgrim 2001). In England and Wales the 1983 Mental Health Act and its 2007 update is currently the legislation directing compulsory treatment of people with mental disorder. In common with legislation in most countries, this Mental Health Act aims to achieve a balance between the rights of the individual mental health patient to be treated and protected and the perceived need to protect others.


Medical Law ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 351-419
Author(s):  
Emily Jackson

All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing able students with a stand-alone resource. This chapter discusses mental health law in the UK. It begins with a brief history of mental health law and policy. This is followed by discussions of: admission to the mental health system; treatment of the mentally ill under the Mental Health Act 1983; Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and Cheshire West, and Community Treatment Orders. It also looks at the implications of the Human Rights Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) for mental health law. It also considers the conclusions of the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Hudson Walker ◽  
Akwasi Osei

In 2012 Ghana passed a new Mental Health Act, which aimed to create a new system of mental healthcare in Ghana. The Act includes provisions for the creation of a modern, community-based mental health system and for the protection of the rights of persons with mental disorders. This article discusses the implications of the Act and the progress which has been made towards its implementation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (13) ◽  
pp. 794-795
Author(s):  
Richard Griffith

Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, discusses the holding powers available under the Mental Health Act 1983 and why their use is prone to error


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Louis Senon ◽  
Carol Jonas ◽  
Michel Botbol

The French Republic has had four laws governing the detention of people with a mental illness. The first dates from 1838 and remained in place until 1990. The most recent one was issued on 27 September 2013; it confirmed the role of the judge and strengthened the legal procedures. This new French mental health law is an attempt to find a balance between the protection of patients' rights and the need for treatment.


Author(s):  
Robert Robinson

It would be a mistake to think of mental health law as a generic form of law directed at a particular class of people, those described as suffering from mental disorders. If a person who has a mental disorder will accept treatment, whether or not they have the capacity to consent to it, there is in general no need to have recourse to mental health law. The Mental Health Act 1983 (‘MHA’) exists for the specific purpose<br />of regulating, and ultimately adjudicating upon, the conflict between a person who objects to receiving psychiatric treatment and the professionals on whom the law confers powers of compulsion. But, as advocates of a capacity-based legal framework would surely agree, it is not the existence of mental health law that gives rise to this conflict. That we have a Mental Health Act but not, say, a Dental Health Act is explained by features characteristic of serious mental illnesses which are not, by and large, found in other medical conditions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-40
Author(s):  
Kenneth C. Kirkby ◽  
Scott Henderson

Australia has a generally progressive approach to mental health law, reflective of international trends in human rights. Responsibility for most legislation is vested in the six States and two Territories, a total of eight jurisdictions, such that at any given time several new mental health acts are in preparation. In addition there is a model mental health act that promotes common standards. Transfer of orders between jurisdictions relies on Memoranda of Understanding between them, and is patchy. State and Territory legislation is generally cognisant of international treaty obligations, which are themselves the preserve of the Federal Parliament and legislature. UK legislation has had a key influence in Australia, the 1959 Mental Health Act in particular, with its strong emphasis on voluntary hospitalisation, prefacing deinstitutionalisation.


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