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What psychiatrists think about Part III of the Mental Health Act 1983

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Alec Buchanan  and
John Gunn
John Gunn
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF
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Abstract

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Aims and method

The government has proposed a ‘root and branch’ review of the Mental Health Act 1983 to be conducted by the end of 1999. The aim of the study was to establish the views of general and forensic psychiatrists as to the adequacy of present legislative provision for England and Wales. The study was carried out by postal survey.

Results

The response rates were 82%, for forensic psychiatrists and 67%, for general psychiatrists. Most respondents considered most of present provision satisfactory. Areas considered in need of amendment were: the term ‘psychopathic disorder’; the requirement for an offence punishable by imprisonment before a hospital order can be made, provision for remands to hospital and the loss of clinical independence consequent upon the making of a restriction order.

Clinical implications

Forensic psychiatrists seem more willing than general psychiatrists to see their clinical discretion limited by the courts. Most of the suggestions were for changes to individual aspects of the present legislation rather than radical reform.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 23 , Issue 12: The Journal of Trends in Psychiatric Practice , December 1999 , pp. 721 - 725
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 © 1999 Royal College of Psychiatrists

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