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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The Mental Health Tribunal is a panel which you have a right to apply to, so that you can be discharged from your section.
Mental Health Tribunal hearings usually take place in the hospital where patients are sectioned, but they are totally independent of the hospital.
The panel is made up of three members who will be:
They will:
They will use this information to decide if you:
You cannot usually ask them to look at whether you should have been sectioned in the first place as this would be outside their powers given to them by the Mental Health Act.
You can apply to the tribunal, unless you are under one of these sections:
If you are under section 4, you can apply to the tribunal, but there will only be a hearing if your section 4 becomes a section 2.
For more information about different sections and what they mean, see our pages on sectioning.
In some cases, someone else can apply to the tribunal for you, like:
The Secretary of State, or Welsh Ministers may refer your case to the tribunal at any time, if you are sectioned under most sections of the Mental Health Act, or you are under a CTO. You may request a reference if you wish, and all requests will be decided on the particular facts of your case.
The hospital managers should consider asking the Secretary of State or Welsh Ministers to refer your case to the tribunal if your human rights are in danger of being violated.
If you are detained under section 3, either you or your nearest relative can apply.
You can apply once at any time in the first 6 months after sectioning. If your section is renewed, then you can apply once in the second 6 months, then once in every 12 month period.
Your hearing should happen within 8 weeks of your application, or sooner if your case is urgent.
You can be referred to the tribunal in the second 6 month period, and after 3 years if you have not applied yourself.
Your nearest relative can apply if your responsible clinician has signed a barring report. They can apply within 28 days of the barring report from your responsible clinician.
If you are detained under section 7 guardianship, you can apply once at any time in the first 6 months after sectioning.
If your guardianship has been renewed, then you can apply once in the next 6 months, then once in every 12 month period.
Your hearing should happen within a few weeks after you apply. If there is an unreasonable delay, you can challenge this through your solicitor or make a complaint.
If you are on a CTO, either you or your nearest relative can apply.
You can apply once at any time in the first 6 months of your CTO. If your CTO is extended, then you can apply once in the next 6 months, then once in every 12 month period.
Your hearing should happen within a few weeks after you apply. If there is an unreasonable delay, you can challenge this through your solicitor or make a complaint.
Your nearest relative can apply if your responsible clinician has signed a barring report. They can apply within 28 days of the barring report from your responsible clinician.
If you under a section 37 hospital order, either you or your nearest relative can apply.
You or your nearest relative could apply once in the second 6 month period and then once every 12 months.
You will be referred to the tribunal after 3 years if you have not applied yourself.
Your hearing should happen within a few weeks after you apply. If there is an unreasonable delay, you can challenge this through your solicitor or make a complaint.
This information should be given to you when you go into hospital, and should be displayed on your ward. You can also ask your IMHA, your carer or someone else supporting you to find this out.
The easiest way is to contact a mental health solicitor who is qualified to represent people at tribunals. The hospital may have details of local solicitors, or you can find out from the Law Society or from the Mental Health Lawyers Association.
During the coronavirus pandemic, tribunal hearings are being held using video calls where possible. In this case a nurse will probably be physically present in the same room as you during your hearing. But the tribunal panel, your Responsible Clinician and your legal representative may all join remotely via video call.
If the tribunal hearing is able to be held in person, it then will probably take place:
If you are on a CTO and having the hearing in the hospital is not suitable for you, you or your representative should contact the hospital managers to discuss alternative sites.
The room should be:
There should also be available a separate room available for you to have discussions with your solicitor and anyone who is with you at the hearing.
You can represented by:
You should be given information by the hospital about any free advice and representation available in your local area. Hospital staff should also be available to help you make your application and get ready for the tribunal.
If you are out of hospital and on a CTO, you may need to ask for this information. Your IMHA may be able to help.
Usually your solicitor will visit you before your hearing and introduce themselves.
But if they can't visit the ward because of coronavirus restrictions, the hospital should support you to speak to them in private by phone or video call.
Before your tribunal hearing, your solicitor can help you in many ways. They can:
Before the coronavirus pandemic it was usual to see a tribunal doctor before your hearing. But this is not happening during the pandemic, to avoid spreading the virus.
You should be given information and support in preparation for your hearing:
It may be possible to cancel your tribunal hearing. If you are discharged before your hearing the hospital will cancel it for you.
But you are usually not able to cancel if:
Sometimes it is because reports the tribunal panel needs to see are missing, not up-to-date or do not provide enough information for the panel to make a decision.
The tribunal will try to get these reports as quickly as possible, and your hearing will have to be rescheduled.
Although the tribunal is a type of court, it will feel more informal than a court.
Apart from the tribunal panel, the people there will be:
There might be others who could attend the hearing, such as:
Here is normally what happens during a hearing:
The tribunal will normally decide at the hearing whether or not you should be discharged and will tell you and the other people there. They should speak to you personally if this is possible and you want them to. If it is not possible, they will tell your representative.
If you do not have a representative, and it is not possible to discuss matters with you after the hearing, the hospital managers should make sure that you are told their decision as soon as possible. Usually their decision in writing with reasons for the decision should also be posted to you a few days after the hearing, and to all parties to the hearing.
If you are under guardianship, your local authority will contact you about the tribunal panel's decision.
Yes you can, although you may want to stay as an informal patient while aftercare services are put in place for you.
In some cases the tribunal may not discharge you immediately, but may set a future date when you will be discharged. This may be to allow for services to be arranged for you, including aftercare services, although usually at least some of these should have been discussed and planned before your hearing.
If the tribunal does not discharge you, it may make recommendations about your future care, including whether you should continue to be cared for under section or whether in the future you should receive care as an informal patient.
If you are a restricted patient but did not come to hospital from prison, the tribunal can discharge you, but this may be with certain conditions.
If you are a restricted patient and were transferred from prison to hospital, the tribunal can recommend to the Secretary of State for Justice that you should be discharged from your section, and where you should receive care and treatment after that.
If you want to complain about anything that happened at your tribunal or about how it was run, you can send a complaint to the tribunal offices. It has its own procedures for dealing with complaints quickly.
If you want to challenge the tribunal's decision not to discharge you, you will need to get legal advice from a mental health solicitor. It is difficult to succeed in this kind of challenge. An appeal to the Upper Tribunal is only allowed if the tribunal has misunderstood the law and applied it wrongly, which happens very rarely.
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.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis 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.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis means that you will go to prison until you go to court to have your case considered. Sometimes you can be remanded to hospital instead of prison.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis 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.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsAn 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.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThe nearest relative is a family member who has certain responsibilities and powers if you are detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act. These include the right to information and to discharge in some situations.
The law sets out a list to decide who will be your nearest relative. This can sometimes be changed.
See our pages on the nearest relative for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsIf 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.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis is the report written by the responsible clinician stopping the discharge of someone under section when an application has been made by the nearest relative.
Visit our full listing of Legal Terms'Capacity' means the ability to understand information and make decisions about your life. Sometimes it can also mean the ability to communicate decisions about your life.
For example, if you do not understand the information and are unable to make a decision about your treatment, you are said to 'lack capacity' to make decisions about your treatment.
See our pages on the Mental Capacity Act for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsAn advocate is a person who can both listen to you and speak for you in times of need. Having an advocate can be helpful in situations where you are 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 TermsAMHPs are mental health professionals who have been approved by a local social services authority to carry out duties under the Mental Health Act. They are responsible for coordinating your assessment and admission to hospital if you are sectioned.
They may be:
This is where someone called a 'guardian' is appointed instead of being sectioned and kept in hospital. Your guardian could be a person or a local authority.
You can only be placed under guardianship if it's necessary for your welfare or to protect other people. Your guardian has the power to make certain decisions about you and to make conditions that you will be asked to keep to, such as where you live.
Guardianship lasts for up to six months and can be renewed: initially for a further six months, and then for a year at a time. You can appeal to the Mental Health Tribunal once in each of these periods.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis has the same meaning as voluntary patient.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis is a tribunal which handles appeals received from lower tribunals. It is not a specialist mental health tribunal.
You can appeal to it if the Mental Health Tribunal got a point of law wrong. In practice, it is rarely used in mental health.
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsThis information was published in July 2020. We will revise it in 2023.
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