Editorials

Mental capacity and psychiatric admission

Many patients lack capacity to consent to treatment on admission, but not all qualify for treatment under the Mental Capacity Act

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

When the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Mental Health Act 2007 are fully implemented in England and Wales over the next year, both will be available to authorise a person’s psychiatric treatment without consent. The two acts are based, however, on different legal standards.¹ The Mental Capacity Act may be used only when a person lacks the capacity to consent. The Mental Health Act, in contrast, can be used regardless of a person’s capacity to consent, if the act’s different criteria of mental disorder, risk of harm, availability of treatment, and so on, apply. Nevertheless, a person can be covered by both acts at the same time, in which case clinicians would have to choose which one to apply.²

In their linked study, Owen and colleagues throw some light on the frequency with which this choice between legal options will arise.³ In a study of 350 consecutive admissions to . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Related Articles

Trustwide audit on mental capacity

Gaurav Mehta and Alex Phipps
BMJ 2008 337: a901. [Extract] [Full Text]

Clarification of mental capacity and psychiatric admission

Brian Murray
BMJ 2008 337: a917. [Extract] [Full Text]

Mental capacity to make decisions on treatment in people admitted to psychiatric hospitals: cross sectional study

Gareth S Owen, Genevra Richardson, Anthony S David, George Szmukler, Peter Hayward, and Matthew Hotopf
BMJ 2008 337: a448. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• (2008). High Incidence of Decision-Making Incapacity in Hospitalized Psychiatric Patients. JWatch Emergency Med. 2008: 5-5 [Full text]  
• Mehta, G., Phipps, A. (2008). Trustwide audit on mental capacity. BMJ 337: a901-a901 [Full text]  
• Murray, B. (2008). Clarification of mental capacity and psychiatric admission. BMJ 337: a917-a917 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Beware of fluctuating capacity

Jay Sarkar
bmj.com, 3 Jul 2008 [Full text]

Dawson's editorial: some clarification required

Brian J Murray
bmj.com, 6 Jul 2008 [Full text]