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A survey of general hospital in-patients detained under Section 5(2) of the 1983 Mental Health Act

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Christopher Buller ,
David Storer  and
Rachel Bennett
Christopher Buller*
Affiliation:
Department of Adult Psychiatry, Airedale Hospital, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD20 6TD
Rachel Bennett
Affiliation:
Department of Liaison Psychiatry, Leeds General Infirmary
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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Detention of general hospital in-patients under Section 5(2) is a rare occurrence. This study of the use of Section 5(2) in general hospitals uncovered a frequent neglect in following the guidelines of The Mental Health Act and The Code of Practice. Surprisingly the conversion rate of Section 5(2) to Section 2 or 3 was similar to that seen in a number of other studies conducted in the quite different setting of large psychiatric hospitals. A number of patient characteristics were identified that appeared to influence whether 5(2)s were converted to an admission Section. Each general hospital needs to develop guidelines to be followed when staff feel that a patient should be detained under Section 5(2) – an example of such a policy is included.

Type
Audit
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 20 , Issue 12 , December 1996 , pp. 733 - 735
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

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