Detention under the Mental Health Act: balancing rights, risks and needs for services

Mental health law has to balance considerations of both justice, and health and welfare. In the political climate of the 1990s mental health services have become targeted on those with serious mental illness, to address the objectives of containing risks and limiting service expenditure. This paper...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of social welfare & family law 2001, Vol.23 (2), p.135-153
Main Authors: Hatfield, Barbara, Antcliff, Valerie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cost Containment
Criminal sociology. Police. Delinquency. Deviance. Suicide
England
England and Wales
Health Care Services Policy
Imprisonment
Inclusion
Institutionalization (Persons)
Legislation
Mental health
Mental Health Act
Mental Health Services
Mental Illness
Mental Patients
Patients
Rights
Risk assessment
Risks
Sectioned patients
Service provision
Sociology
Sociology of law and criminology
Statutes
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Summary:Mental health law has to balance considerations of both justice, and health and welfare. In the political climate of the 1990s mental health services have become targeted on those with serious mental illness, to address the objectives of containing risks and limiting service expenditure. This paper identifies that increasing rates of detention under the Mental Health Act through the 1990s in a particular region, disproportionately involve longer-term detentions (under section 3), men, and people with serious mental illnesses. Those detained are likely to experience social difficulties. Changes in legislation are imminent, and the paper concludes that thought should be given to the amount of statutory intervention in the lives of seriously mentally ill people, and to the principle of reciprocity in relation to those coerced for lesser periods. Services should seek to address the issues of social exclusion which are reflected in the circumstances of those detained.
ISSN:0964-9069
1469-9621
DOI:10.1080/01418030122309