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Section 17 of the Mental Health Act

Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust, Porchester Road, Nottingham NG3 6AA

From 1 April 1996 mental health legislation was expanded to include provision for "supervised discharge" under the Mental Health (Patients in the Community) Act 1995. However, the use of Section 17 (s17) of the Mental Health Act has always provided an option for an extended leave. This retrospective case note study examines 10 years of practice of s17 use and focuses on characteristics of those patients recalled. Increases in s17 applications represented equivalent increases in admissions and overall sections, although numbers of patients actually recalled had fallen significantly. Patients recalled after discharge were generally middle-aged men with a long history of schizophrenia, on s3, who relapse quickly due to treatment non-compliance.