A Court of Appeal judgment handed down on 1 May 2013 has clarified that capacity is decision specific, but in considering the relevant information this must include information specifically relevant to the people involved in the matter at hand. We previously commented on the High Court decision, in November 2012. This case concerned a woman, [...]
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IPCC publishes report on the Met Police and their treatment of the mentally ill
The Guardian Newspaper has reported today on an independent report into the deaths or serious injuries of 55 mentally ill people in the past five years either in custody or in contact with the Metropolitan police, has found a catalogue of mismanagement and bad practices. Among the findings were discriminatory attitudes, systematic failures, and errors by [...]
Will the Mental Health Act be changed by the HSCA 2012?
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 will come in to force on 13th April 2013. The main changes it makes to the Mental Health Act 1983 will be – - SOADs will no longer be needed to approve ECT or medication after one month. If the person has capacity and consents, the approved clinician (AC) alone can [...]
More statistics on the deprivation of liberty safeguards – how much is really changing?
On 17 July 2012, the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre published its third report on deprivation of liberty safeguards. This looks at the number of requests for standard authorisations made, and granted, between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012. These authorise the deprivation of a person’s liberty, in their best interests. The [...]
Mental Health Debate
On June 7th 2012, one of our directors, Andrew Guile (far right in the picture above) spoke at a lively debate held after writer and comedian, Ruby Wax had performed her critically acclaimed show ‘Losing it’ which looks at her own experiences. With an audience of lawyers and barristers as well as mental health service [...]
