Letters
Low appeal rate may reflect trust in doctors' judgment
EDITOR,--Caroline Bradley and colleagues conclude that too few patients appeal against detention under section 2 of the Mental Health Act and that this would be improved if patients were fully informed of their rights.1 Our experience in Springfield Hospital does not confirm this. An advice and legal representation project has existed at the hospital since 1982.2 As the table shows, the rate of appeal against detention under section 2 (15%) is lower than that reported in Oxford. Understanding why most patients do not contest their section may require more than attributing it to lack of either knowledge or time.
It is an error to assume that because patients agree that they need to be in hospital then compulsory detention was, or is, a mistake. The relationship between doctors and patients is complex and can simultaneously include a whole range of conflicting and ambivalent attitudes. Patients can disagree with their doctors'
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Why do so few patients appeal against detention under section 2 of the mental health act?
- Caroline Bradley, Max Marshall, and Dennis Gath
BMJ 1995 310: 364-367.[Abstract] [Full Text]
This Article
- Full text
- Respond to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when responses are posted
- Alert me when a correction is posted
Services
- Email this article to a friend
- Find similar articles in BMJ
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Related Content
Bookmark with
What's new
Latest blogs
Find BMJ on:
Services
Tools
Online poll
Resources
Rapid responses for this article
There are no rapid responses for this article. Print issues
