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The use of the Mental Health Act in elderly patients in one health district

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

C. Morris*
Affiliation:
St Andrew's Hospital, Yarmouth Road, Norwich NR7 0SS
I.M. Anderson
Affiliation:
University of Manchester Department of Psychiatry, Rawnsley Building, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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There has been little published on the application of the Mental Health Act (1983) in the elderly. We therefore surveyed its use in a district old age psychiatry service covering a mixed rural and urban population with about 60,000 people over 65 years. The MHA was applied 36 times to 32 patients over a two year period. The primary diagnosis was a functional psychiatric illness in 64% patients (usually depression) and dementia in 36%. Functionally ill patients were most frequently detained on a treatment section (S3) and demented patients on an assessment section (S2). Only one patient with dementia was placed on a guardianship order. The outcome of treatment is described.

Type
Original papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994

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