How Do You Section Someone Under The Mental Health Act

After your mental health act assessment you may be discharged or you may stay in hospital under a different section of the mental health act.

How do you section someone under the mental health act. Under mental health act guardianship conditional discharge and community treatment orders ctos discussing having certain treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy ect. A team of health professionals assessed your mental health and decided that the best way to provide the care and treatment you need is to admit you to hospital under section 3 for treatment. Being detained under the mental health act is sometimes called being sectioned because the law has different sections.

Section 3 of the act allows for a person to be detained for up to six months to begin with. Being sectioned means that you are kept in hospital under the mental health act 1983 a piece of legislation that covers the treatment assessment and rights of those with mental disorders. Detained in hospital under a section of the mental health act but not if you are under sections 4 5 135 and 136.

Section 4 can last for 72 hours and is a speedy way of getting someone who needs treatment for their mental health urgently into care without waiting for multiple doctors to assess. The mental health act is structured in many sections. You ll only be sectioned if you re too unwell to make decisions or understand that you need help.

Under section 136 you have the right to be told why you have been detained get legal advice ask the police or hospital to tell someone where you are and get mental health treatment. In wales voluntary patients can also have an imha. The duty to provide aftercare also applies if you are given section 17 leave or are under a community treatment order.

In most cases you ll be told which section of the mental health act applied in your case. This could apply to someone who has already been detained under section 2 and who then needs to be treated for longer. Under section 117 health authorities and local social services have a legal duty to provide free aftercare for people who have been discharged under mental health act sections 3 37 45a 47 or 48.

You should only be detained under the mental health act if there are no other ways to keep you or others safe. Being sectioned means being detained under a section paragraph of the mental health act 1983 because doctors are worried you re going to hurt yourself or other people. The team of professionals would be an approved mental health professional known as an amhp and two doctors.