Rights of People Detained Under the Mental Health Act

In our society there are those of us that require treatment for something other than broken bones or disease. Mental health is one of those issues that few people are willing to face, if someone has a cast on their leg, you can see immediately what is wrong with them; with mental illness it is difficult to know what to say, or do. We are often shown pictures in TV dramas of sociopaths and the mentally ill, as if they are all to be lumped in the same category: dangerous.

This is prejudice in one of its worst forms, born from a lack of understanding.

While the Mental Health Act and the Courts have not provided a definition, preferring instead to consider each person on a case-by-case basis, there is a general definition of ‘mental illness, arrested or incomplete development of mind, psychopathic disorder and any other disorder or disability of the mind’. This is very general and, since we still know so little about the workings of the human mind; maybe that is right.

The Mental Health Act

While the Act does not give a specific definition, it has given three distinct forms of mental disorder:

• Severe mental impairment – which is incomplete or arrested mental development, usually with serious aggression.
• Mental impairment – similar to severe mental impairment but with arrested intelligence and not as high a level of aggression.
• Psychopathic disorder – which they term a ‘persistent disorder or disability of the mind with abnormal aggression or sociopathic tendencies

Now, I don’t know about you but they all sound fairly similar to me, however, I am not a Doctor so perhaps there are significant differences.

Informal Admission into Hospital

If a person is sufficiently aware that they are suffering from some form of mental illness, then they can choose to be admitted into hospital for treatment, just as they would if they had pneumonia, for example. Once admitted, they retain all their basic rights for care and protection from harm. Their rights are not diminished or restricted just because they may or may not have a mental disorder.

Admission Via the Court

A person can be forced to have mental health treatment if the court or another responsible body, such as social services, deem it necessary for their health and safety. This is known as ‘sectioning’ and is often treated as a last resort. This can be done for up to six months and would need to be renewed at the end of that period if further treatment is required.

An individual can also be admitted against their will for assessment, possibly following treatment, for a period of no longer than 28 days, under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act. If the treatment is unsuccessful or if the medical staff feel that further in-patient treatment is necessary then they cannot simply extend the stay; they must apply for the patient to be ‘sectioned’.

The Police have also been granted various powers to remove a person from their home or from a public place if there is a serious threat to life. They cannot admit someone to a Psychiatric Unit, however, they must deliver them to a hospital where the patient can be detained for up to six hours by the nurse or transferred to the requisite unit by a Doctor.

Patients Rights

During all of this it needs to be remembered that the patients themselves still have rights; they may, for the most part, be able to function in a lucid manner and understand what is happening to them. They are also still entitled to have their needs met in the form of food, housing and protection from abuse and harassment.

Were it not for the circumstance they find themselves in, then they would have every right to claim a breach of their human rights by the very fact that they have been detained, however the European Court of Human Rights, and our own Parliament, has stated that it is lawful to detain someone under these circumstances. In addition, the Mental Health Act goes to great lengths to ensure that patients are made aware of what is happening to them, the treatment they are to receive and that, if they wish, they can apply to the Mental Health Review Tribunal for an independent decision.