An overview of your rights under the Mental Health Act. Includes FAQs, explanations of legal terms and links to further information and support.
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This page provides brief answers to the most common questions you may have about your rights under the Mental Health Act, and lets you know where you can find more detailed information on our website.
In certain circumstances you can be made to go to hospital under a section of the Mental Health Act, even if you don't want to. There are many terms you might hear used to describe this, including:
Before you can be lawfully sectioned, you will need to be assessed by a team of health professionals, to make sure that it is necessary.
To find out more about when it may be legal to section you, what different sections mean and what your rights are when in hospital, see our legal pages on sectioning.
If you are in hospital as an informal patient (also known as voluntary patient), you are free to leave the hospital or ward should you choose.
However, if your care team is worried about you, they can detain you temporarily so that a decision can be made about whether you should be sectioned. When these powers are used:
Before you can be lawfully sectioned, you will need to be assessed by a team of health professionals, to make sure that it is necessary.
To find out more about when it may be legal to section you, what different sections mean and what your rights are when in hospital, see our legal pages on:
Yes, the police may be involved if:
To find out more about when and how the police can become involved in each of these instances, see our legal pages on:
If you are going to the criminal court to be tried for committing a crime and the court receives reports from a health professional that you are unwell enough, it can order you to be detained in hospital:
To find out more about what sections apply here and how this process works, see our legal pages on:
A medical professional should always seek your informed consent before giving you treatment for your physical or mental health.
However, the Mental Health Act says that in some circumstances, you can receive treatment from medical professionals for your mental disorder without your consent. This can happen when you are detained under certain sections of the Act.
The Mental Health Act only authorises treatment for mental disorder, so you couldn't be given treatment without your consent for a physical illness under the Act, unless the physical problem is a symptom or underlying cause of a mental disorder.
To find out more about when it's legal to treat you against your wishes, see our legal pages on agreeing to treatment.
You still have certain rights when you are in hospital, as well as when you have left hospital. These may include rights to:
To find out more about the rights you have under the Mental Health Act, see our legal page on:
Your family members may have certain legal rights related to your sectioning. For example, your family member might be your nearest relative (NR). Your nearest relative has certain rights and responsibilities, including a right to:
To find out more about who can be your nearest relative and what they are able to do for you, see our legal pages on nearest relative (NR).
In England and Wales, if you have been sectioned you have the right to receive support from an advocate, called an Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA). In Wales, if you are an inpatient (even if you are a voluntary patient and not sectioned) you have the right to receive support from an advocate. An IMHA can help you do a range of things, including:
To find out more about what an IMHA can do for you and how to access one, and for information on advocacy more generally, see our legal pages on:
If you are detained in hospital you are sometimes able to leave hospital for a short period of time, even if you are still under section. This is called section 17 leave.
To find out more about taking short periods of leave from hospital while under section, see our legal pages on:
If you have been sectioned, the Mental Health Act gives you the right to be given information on ways in which your section can end. This may also be called being 'discharged' from your section. You can still stay in hospital even if your section has ended. This is called being an informal patient.
If you want to be discharged and you are under sections 2 or 3, you can:
You could be discharged from hospital onto a community treatment order (CTO). This means you won't have to stay in hospital but there might be some conditions to this, for example you may have to live in a certain place or you might have to go somewhere for medical treatment.
To find out more about being discharged from hospital, see our legal pages on:
To find out more about CTOs, see our legal pages on community treatment orders (CTOs).
You may have a right to free aftercare under section 117 of the Mental Health Act once you have left hospital. This is the help you can receive for free in the community, including healthcare, social care and supported accommodation. You can only get this if you have been on certain sections, for example section 3.
To find out more about what care you're entitled to when you leave hospital, see our legal pages on:
A formal patient is someone who is being detained in hospital under a section of the Mental Health Act, and is therefore not free to leave.
See our full list of legal terms.This has the same meaning as voluntary patient.
See our full list of legal terms.This is a locally agreed place where the police may take you to be assessed. It's usually a hospital but can be your home. A police station should only be used in an emergency.
See our full list of legal terms.A person is detained if they are being kept in hospital under section and are not free to leave.
See our full list of legal terms.When the Mental Health Act talks about someone with mental health problems and whether or not they should be sectioned, it often uses the term 'mental disorder'. The Act says that this can include "any disorder or disability of mind".
Mental disorder can include:
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 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.
See our full list of legal terms.Hospital managers are an independent team of people in a hospital who make sure that the requirements of the Mental Health Act are properly applied. They have certain important responsibilities and 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.
See our full list of legal terms.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.
See our full list of legal terms.This information was published in November 2018. We will revise it in 2020.
References are available on request. If you would like to reproduce any of this information, see our page on permissions and licensing.