MentalHealthCop
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Royal College of Psychiatry Standards
The Royal College of Psychiatrists chairs a multi-agency Mental Health Act group which produces guidance, standards and documents around “Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 and the operation of ‘Places of Safety’.” Over the last five or six years, I have probably quoted their guidance several thousands of times when trying to push … Continue reading
Debating Police Powers
Recent debate has surfaced about police powers in private premises to deal with mental health incidents. Readers of the blog already know that the police, on their own, have no such powers under the Mental Health Act 1983. The impact of this is that where officers attend a private house, unless there has been a … Continue reading
Section 5 MHA – Holding Powers
A requested post, after this week receiving several queries at work and on twitter about nurses’ and doctors’ “holding powers” under the Mental Health Act. Officers and patients have been asking what, if anything, various doctors and nurses can do to detain someone if they suspect a mental disorder and fear someone may come to … Continue reading
March Newsletter
Since deciding to blog a bit less often, it has caused me to think about how I can develop this resource differently and I’ve decided to instigate something of a monthly ‘newsletter’ – which to give me a memorable deadline, I’ll publish on the 25th of the month. The aim here, is to refer to a few … Continue reading
Deflecting Demand – Safe and Well Checks
A person with mental health problems who may have taken an overdose walks out of A&E before conclusion of an MHA assessment and before the results of blood tests are fully known. What do we always call for? – a safe and well check by the police, right?! Yes. But it’s pointless; and here’s why … Continue reading
Doing Other Stuff
This post has been a while coming: I’m going to make a deliberate decision to blog less often so that I can do various other things: in life as much as in my “natural venn diagram!” I hate to think how many hours of my personal life have gone in to all of this – … Continue reading
Give Me Two Days
Chuffed to bits that Nathan Constable has written another guest blog for me – I still remember the first time he rang me up to tell me what a difference a nugget of knowledge had made after he’d read one of my blogs. It was obviously a subject he was passionate about and you’ll find … Continue reading
Infanticide and the Criminalisation Contingency
Do you remember what I mean by “the criminalisation contingency”? – the process whereby access to certain types of healthcare are made dependent upon the legal framework wrapped around the patient? If not, I wrote about it last year and you can take a look at that before reading on, if you wish. But try … Continue reading
So What Happens Now?
UPDATE 12/03 – West Midlands Police have been given the authority to charge Phillip SIMELANE with murder. The tragic events of this Thursday have reverberated around the country: a young woman with her life ahead of her, killed in an apparently random attack on a city bus in the early morning build up to rush … Continue reading
PARAMEDIC SERIES: What Is An AMHP?
This is one of the PARAMEDIC SERIES of blogs. To see all of the others, refer to the index: An Approved Mental Health Professional is a person who is warranted, or authorised, to make certain legal decisions and applications under the Mental Health Act 1983. Usually, this person will be a social worker who has … Continue reading
