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

BMJ 1999; 318 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7197.1520 (Published 05 June 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;318:1520
  1. Sharon Wall, research workera,
  2. Matthew Hotopf, senior lecturer in psychological medicine (m.hotopf@iop.bpmf.ac.uk)a,
  3. Simon Wessely, professor of liaison and epidemiological psychiatrya,
  4. Rachel Churchill, lecturer in psychiatric epidemiologyb
  1. aDepartment of Psychological Medicine, Guy's, King's College, and St Thomas's School of Medicine and the Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AZ
  2. bSection of Epidemiology and General Practice, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
  1. Correspondence to: Dr Hotopf
  • Accepted 19 January 1999

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 …

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