Leaving hospital

If you have been sectioned and treated in hospital under certain sections, your responsible clinician can put you on a CTO. This means that you can be discharged from the section and leave hospital, but you might have to meet certain conditions such as living in a certain place, or going somewhere for medical treatment. Sometimes, if you don't follow the conditions or you become unwell, you can be returned to hospital.

See our pages on CTOs for more information.

An IMHA is an advocate specially trained to help you find out your rights under the Mental Health Act 1983 and help you while you are 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 pages on IMHAs (England) and IMHAs (Wales) for more information.

This has the same meaning as voluntary patient.

This tells health professionals how they should follow the Mental Health Act. It is not law, so it cannot be enforced by going to court, 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.

This is a law that applies to England and Wales which 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.

This is the mental health professional in charge of your care and treatment while you are sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Certain decisions, such as applying for someone who is sectioned to go onto a community treatment order (CTO), can only be taken by the responsible clinician.

All responsible clinicians must be approved clinicians. They do not have to be a doctor, but in practice many of them are.

Being 'sectioned' means that you are kept in hospital under the Mental Health Act. There are different types of sections, each with different rules to keep you in hospital. The length of time that you can be kept in hospital depends on which section you are detained under.

See our pages on sectioning for more information.

Voluntary patients, also known as 'informal patients', are people who are staying in a psychiatric hospital but are not detained under the Mental Health Act. If you are a voluntary patient, you should be able to come and go from the hospital within reason and discharge yourself if you decide to go home.

See our pages on voluntary patients for more information.