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Authors' reply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Séan Whyte
Affiliation:
Specialist Registrar
Clive Meux
Affiliation:
Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Area 2 Community Mental Health Team, Gloucester House, 194 Hammersmith Road, London W6 8BS
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Abstract

Type
Columns
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, 2003

The reference in our article to compulsory powers being used ‘less frequently’ is not meant to imply that fewer patients are detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 in general adult psychiatric services than in forensic psychiatric services; rather, it is a reference to the fact that 100% of forensic psychiatric patients in secure environments are detained under the Act, whereas a lower proportion of general adult patients are. We have no doubt that the workload of general adult psychiatrists will increase under the proposed new Act, but have not commented on this as the data presented in our paper apply directly only to forensic psychiatric services. We support Dr Zigmond's contentions about the effect of the proposed Act on general psychiatric services, and we look forward to seeing the published correspondence.

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