BMJ 1999;318:1520-1521 ( 5 June )

Papers

Trends in the use of the Mental Health Act: England, 1984-96

Sharon Wall, research worker ^a,  Matthew Hotopf, senior lecturer in psychological medicine ^a,  Simon Wessely, professor of liaison and epidemiological psychiatry ^a,  Rachel Churchill, lecturer in psychiatric epidemiology ^b. 

^a Department of Psychological Medicine, Guy's, King's College, and St Thomas's School of Medicine and the Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AZ, ^b Section of Epidemiology and General Practice, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF

Correspondence to: Dr Hotopf m.hotopf@iop.bpmf.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The Mental Health Act 1983 provides legislation to ensure a consistent and comprehensive approach to the compulsory admission of psychiatric patients in England and Wales. Since the introduction of the act, the provision of service has changed: hospitals have closed and the care in the community programme has been introduced. Despite the reduction in the number of psychiatric beds available Department of Health data show a rise in the absolute number of compulsory admissions.¹ We aimed to determine the proportion of all psychiatric admissions that these compulsory "formal" admissions represent.

	Methods and results

The Department of Health collects data from health authorities on compulsory psychiatric admissions, and these data were used to determine the proportion of all psychiatric admissions that were compulsory. Between 1984 and 1986 these data were presented for each calendar year. Since 1987 they have been presented for each financial year. Data were available from the Mental Health Enquiry from 1984 to 1986 and from the . . . [Full text of this article]

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Increase in secure provision as well as increase in detention under Mental Health Act

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