Leaving hospital
Explains your rights related to leaving hospital after being sectioned and detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Getting ready to leave hospital and planning aftercare
It might feel like there's a lot going on when you're preparing to leave hospital after being detained under section. But you should be involved in the plans for your discharge and aftercare planning.
You might feel worried about being discharged and what support you might receive in the community. You're not alone, and our information is here to help you.
Will I be involved in planning my discharge?
Before you leave hospital, people involved in your care will have a discharge meeting. They'll work together to develop a discharge plan for addressing your needs. They should discuss, plan and agree this with you.
You should be ‘given the opportunity to be involved in the planning, developing and reviewing of your care’. This is set out in the English and Welsh Mental Health Act Codes of Practice.
The codes also state that hospital staff should help you take part in decision-making as far as you're capable of doing so.
You should get least 48 hours' notice of your hospital discharge date. Your care team should also discuss your aftercare plans with family or carers who'll be involved in your care.
Problems with your discharge plans
If you feel that you're not involved in your discharge and aftercare planning, you can:
- Talk to an independent mental health advocate (IMHA)
- Contact a mental health solicitor
Or you might've been involved in planning, but now your discharge is delayed. This could be for different reasons:
- The professionals involved might've had delays in arranging the care you've agreed to receive.
- There might be a dispute about which local authority will pay for your aftercare.
But if you no longer meet the criteria for detention under the Mental Health Act, keeping you in hospital for a delay might be unlawful. A mental health solicitor can advise in this situation.
What will my aftercare plans include?
Your aftercare plans will depend on your mental health problems and your needs. Aftercare plans for hospital discharge often include:
- Medical treatment for your mental and physical health, including medication
- Potential risks to your own wellbeing and safety, and to the safety of others
- Types of support that you should be able to access if you find yourself in crisis
- Any needs you have as a result of problems with alcohol or drugs
- Your personal circumstances, including family and carers
- Your financial circumstances
- Your housing needs
- Your employment, education and training needs
You should have the chance to agree to any discharge and aftercare plans. And the planning should involve your family and carers, if this is what you want.
The plan should not only focus on your difficulties and needs. It should consider your strengths and what you hope to achieve with the support of services.
Your aftercare plan should also meet these aims:
- The plan should support effective working between people involved in your care. For example, your social worker, community mental health team and your GP.
- It should include personalised risk assessment and explain how you can deal with certain problems.
- There should be information for you about how to contact people for support. For example, if you're considered at risk of suicide, there should be follow-up arrangements set in advance. These should take place within 48 hours of you leaving hospital.
Who will plan my aftercare for leaving hospital?
After being sectioned, community mental health services will usually plan your future care and support:
- In England, most services follow the Community Mental Health Framework (CMHF).
- In Wales, you'll have a Care and Treatment Plan (CTP).
You can find more details about each of these:
What is the Community Mental Health Framework?
The Community Mental Health Framework (CMHF) is a national approach to improving mental healthcare. It aims to provide flexible support in the community, based on your individual needs.
It brings services together so they can work closely to support you. For example:
- NHS mental health services
- Social care
- Voluntary and community organisations
The design of the CMHF ensures that you can:
- Get support more easily
- Move between services without barriers
- Get personalised care based on your needs, not only based on what's available locally
What support should I get under the CMHF?
Under the CMHF, you usually get most of these types of support:
- Support from a care co-ordinator
- A full assessment of your needs, taking into account all services who'll provide your support
- A written care plan, which includes plans for potential risks and what should happen if you're in crisis
- Ongoing review of your mental healthcare
- A review of whether you need support from an advocate
- Types of support that consider both your mental and physical health
- Support to stay well in your community, like help with housing, work or social activities
Under this framework, you should be involved in planning and decisions about aftercare. You might also want to involve your family or carers.
What is a Care and Treatment Plan?
A Care and Treatment Plan (CTP) is a written plan in Welsh or English. It covers what you want to achieve in certain aspects of your life after hospital. It then outlines which mental health services will help you do this.
You have a legal right to a CTP if you receive secondary health services in Wales. For example from a community psychiatric nurse, social worker or member of the community mental health team.
What does a CTP include?
Generally, a CTP covers plans for these 8 aspects of life after leaving hospital:
- Finance and money
- Accommodation
- Personal care and physical wellbeing
- Education and training
- Work and occupation
- Parenting or caring relationships
- Social, cultural or spiritual
- Medical and other forms of treatment, including psychological interventions
Your CTP will set the outcomes you want to achieve in these 8 areas. At least 1 outcome area must be planned, but generally your care planning should cover multiple areas.
The CTP will also have a section setting out:
- Which service provisions will help you achieve your outcomes
- The date when these services will be provided
- Who's responsible for providing the services
Who prepares a CTP?
When you access secondary services, your local health board (LHB) or local authority will prepare your CTP. They should appoint a care co-ordinator, who might work in any of the following roles:
- A psychiatrist
- A psychiatric nurse
- A social worker
- Another healthcare professional
Your care co-ordinator is responsible for working with others to agree to the outcomes in the CTP. This might include:
- You
- Other people involved in your healthcare
- Your family
- Your carer
What's the process for leaving hospital with a CTP?
In Wales, you should expect the following process when preparing for hospital discharge:
- Assessment and planning. While you're in hospital, the people responsible for your care will start assessing your needs and planning your discharge.
- Care services. The LHB and local authority will discuss your discharge. They'll take steps to choose appropriate services to support you when you leave hospital. They should do this in plenty of time before your discharge.
- Consultation. The LHB and local authority should consult certain people about their plans. This might include:
- You
- Your family and carer
- Your care co-ordinator
- Other healthcare professionals involved in your care
- Discharge meeting. Before you leave hospital, people involved in your care will have a discharge meeting. They'll develop a discharge care plan for your needs. This should involve you, your care co-ordinator and other professionals involved in your care. They'll record the agreed arrangements in your CTP.
- Crisis plan. This should set out what you'd like to happen if you become unwell again after leaving hospital.
If you already have a CTP before you're detained, someone will review it within 72 hours of your admission. They'll update it if required.
Will I have to pay for aftercare services?
You have a right to free aftercare under section 117 depending on which type of section you're under. The sections include:
- Sections 3, 37, 45A, 47 or 48
- Community treatment order (CTO)
- Conditional discharge
If you're in England, your care plan under the CMHF should set this out. If you're in Wales, this will be assessed and planned under the CTP.
For more information, see our page on section 117 aftercare.
What if I don't feel ready to leave hospital?
If you don't feel ready to leave hospital towards the end of your section, tell your responsible clinician (RC) as soon as you can. You might feel this way if someone applied for discharge on your behalf.
Your RC will decide whether there are good medical reasons for you to stay in hospital as an informal patient. To do this, they might consult other professionals involved in your care. They need to decide whether this will help you get the care and treatment you need.
However, if there are suitable plans for aftercare and support in the community, they'll want to discharge you. Even if you don't feel ready.
But this does not mean that you'll leave hospital with no support. For example, the aftercare plans might involve:
- Asking you to attend as an outpatient to receive regular treatment
- Going into hospital sometimes so that doctors can monitor your mental health
- Being discharged into another type of accommodation, such as supported living
Your care team should discuss these plans with you before you leave. You should know what to expect, even if you don't quite feel ready.
Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA)
The MHA is a law that applies to England and Wales. It allows people to be detained in hospital (sectioned) if they have a mental health disorder and need treatment. You can only be kept in hospital if certain conditions are met.
See our pages on the Mental Health Act for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsMental Health Act Code of Practice
This tells health professionals how they should follow the Mental Health Act. The Code is not law. So a court cannot enforce it. But health professionals should follow it unless there is a good reason not to.
The Code covers some areas not specifically mentioned in the Mental Health Act. Such as visiting rights and the use of seclusion.
If a health professional doesn’t follow the Code, you can make a complaint.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsSection
Being 'sectioned' means that you're kept in hospital under the Mental Health Act. There are different types of sections. Each have different rules to keep you in hospital. The length of time that you can be kept in hospital depends on which section you're detained under.
See our pages on sectioning for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsAdvocate
An advocate is a person who can listen to you and speak for you. Having an advocate can be helpful in situations where you're finding it difficult to make your views known. Or to make people listen to them and take them into account.
See our pages on advocacy for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsCommunity treatment order (CTO)
If you've been sectioned and treated in hospital, your responsible clinician can put you on a CTO.
This means that they can discharge you from the section and you can leave hospital. But you might have to meet certain conditions. For example:
- Living in a certain place
- Going somewhere for medical treatment
Sometimes you could be made to go back to hospital. For example:
- If you don't follow the conditions
- If you become unwell again
See our pages on CTOs for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsHospital managers (also known as Mental Health Act managers)
Hospital managers are an independent team of people in a hospital. They make sure that the requirements of the Mental Health Act are properly applied. They have certain important responsibilities. And they can make decisions related to your detention.
In practice, most of the day-to-day decisions are taken by individuals authorised by the hospital managers to do so. This can include hospital staff. Decisions about discharge are normally delegated to a team of people who are independent of the hospital. You can apply to them to be discharged from your section and they will decide whether or not to discharge you.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsIndependent mental health advocate (IMHA)
An IMHA is an advocate. They're specially trained to help you find out your rights under the Mental Health Act 1983. And to help you while you're detained. They can listen to what you want and speak for you.
You have a right to an IMHA if you are:
- Detained in hospital under a section of the Mental Health Act, but not if you are under sections 4, 5, 135 and 136
- Under Mental Health Act guardianship, conditional discharge and community treatment orders (CTOs)
- Discussing having certain treatments, such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
In Wales, voluntary patients can also have an IMHA.
See our page on IMHAs in England and Wales for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsMental Health Tribunal (MHT)
This is a special court that deals with cases relating to the Mental Health Act 1983. The Tribunal decides whether you can be discharged from your section. It can sometimes make recommendations about other matters. Such as hospital leave, transfer to another hospital, guardianship and community treatment orders (CTOs).
The court consists of a panel, which normally includes:
- A chairperson with a legal qualification
- A ‘lay member’ with appropriate experience and qualifications in mental health
- An independent psychiatrist. They will speak to you and examine you before the tribunal hearing in certain circumstances. Or when you request to see them
Where you see a reference to the Mental Health Tribunal in this guide, it means:
- First Tier Tribunal (Mental Health), if you live in England
- Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales, if you live in Wales
Conditional discharge
This is where you can leave hospital but have to follow some conditions. For example, living at a particular place or meeting healthcare professionals. If you break these conditions, you can be sent back to hospital.
You can only be put under a conditional discharge if you're a restricted patient under a restriction direction, and also:
- You've been sectioned by a court under the Mental Health Act and have been charged with a crime
Or
- You've been transferred to hospital from prison under the Mental Health Act
Detained
A person is detained if they're being kept in hospital under section and are not free to leave.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsCare and Treatment Planning (CTP)
Care and Treatment Planning relates to people who live in Wales. It's a way that secondary mental health services are assessed, planned, coordinated and reviewed. It comes from a law called the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010.
Secondary mental health services include the community mental health team (CMHT), assertive outreach team and early intervention team.
You should get:
- A full assessment of your health and social care needs
- A care plan
- Regular reviews
- A care coordinator who will be responsible for overseeing your care and support
See our pages on leaving hospital for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsCare coordinator
A care coordinator is your main point of contact and support if you need ongoing mental health care. They:
- Keep in close contact with you during your care
- Monitor how your care gets delivered – particularly when you’re not in hospital
They're also responsible for doing the assessment to work out your health and social care needs under the care programme approach (CPA).
They could be any mental health professional. But they usually work as part of the community mental health team. For example:
- A nurse
- A social worker
- Another mental health worker
It depends what's most appropriate for your situation.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsCommunity mental health team (CMHT)
CMHTs support people with mental health problems living in the community. And also their carers.
The team may include:
- A social worker
- A community psychiatric nurse (CPN)
- A psychologist
- An occupational therapist
- A counsellor
- A community support worker
Local Health Boards (LHBs)
LHBs are a key part of the health service in Wales. They exist to create and deliver services based on the needs of the local community.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsCare Programme Approach (CPA)
The Care Programme Approach (CPA) is a way that secondary mental health services are assessed, planned, coordinated and reviewed. It only applies to people who live in England.
Secondary mental health services include:
- Community mental health team (CMHT)
- Assertive outreach team
- Early intervention team
You should get:
- A full assessment of your health and social care needs
- A care plan
- Regular reviews
- A care coordinator who will be responsible for overseeing your care and support
See our pages on leaving hospital for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsSection 117 aftercare
Some people who have been kept in hospital under the Mental Health Act can get free help and support after they leave hospital. The law that gives this right is section 117 of the Mental Health Act. It's often referred to as 'section 117 aftercare'.
Health authorities and local social services have a legal duty to give you section 117 aftercare if:
- You've been detained under Mental Health Act sections 3, 37, 47 or 48, but have left hospital, or
- You're under a community treatment order (CTO)
Responsible clinician (RC)
This is the mental health professional in charge of your care and treatment while you're sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
Certain decisions can only be taken by the responsible clinician. For example, applying for someone who is sectioned to go onto a community treatment order (CTO).
All responsible clinicians must be approved clinicians. They don't have to be doctors, but many of them are.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsInformal patient
This means you've chosen to go into hospital. You haven't been sectioned. It's also called being a 'voluntary patient'.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsPublished: August 2026
Next review planned: August 2029
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