Explains the rights you have to get your section lifted if you are being detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act, and your rights to care and support after leaving hospital.
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There are a few ways in which this can happen, and you may be able to choose several options at the same time. How many options you have depends on which section of the Mental Health Act you are under.
If you want to have your section lifted, you can:
If you want to challenge the fact that you have been sectioned at all, you will need to go to the High Court (not the Mental Health Tribunal), and show:
Legal aid will not always be available for this kind of challenge.
Disagreeing with your medical diagnosis will not always be enough to successfully challenge the fact you were sectioned in the first place. You will need to get legal advice about the possible success of your case, and your mental health solicitor will be able to tell you about whether you are likely to get legal aid.
Alternatively, you could use the NHS Complaints procedure to argue that you should not have been sectioned. This would be free, but you are unlikely to get compensation even if your complaint is successful.
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.
See our full list of legal terms.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.
See our full list of legal terms.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.
In Wales, voluntary patients can also have an IMHA.
See our pages on IMHAs (England) and IMHAs (Wales) for more information.
See our full list of legal terms.This is an order made by the court when it has made a hospital order under section 37 to put restrictions on your discharge, transfer or leave from hospital. The Secretary of State's consent must be obtained in order to do these. This means it will be harder to get discharged by the tribunal or you might have to comply with certain conditions.
It can only be made if it is necessary to protect the public from serious harm.
See our full list of legal terms.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 matters such as hospital leave, transfer to another hospital, guardianship and community treatment orders (CTOs).
The court is made of a panel, which normally includes:
Where you see a reference to the Mental Health Tribunal in this guide, it means:
This information was published in July 2020. We will revise it in 2023.
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