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The Mental Health (Amendment) Act 1982: Will it Make a Difference?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

George Szmukler*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5
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An examination of the changes to be introduced by the Mental Health (Amendment) Act 1982 suggests that they might have a significant effect on the fate of many patients who are currently admitted on compulsory orders. There are potentialities for improvement, but for these to be fruitful a firm commitment will be required from the professionals involved to attend to these patients' needs. The tide generated by the new legislation is more likely, however, to carry the professionals away from these patients for the main thrust of the new Act is to make treatment more difficult.

Type
Research Article
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, 1983

References

Department of Health and Social Security (1982) Mental Health Amendment Act 1982. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Szmukler, G.I., Bird, A.S. & Button, E.J. (1981) Compulsory admissions in a London Borough: I. Social and clinical features and a follow-up. Psychological Medicine, 11, 617–36.Google Scholar
Szmukler, G.I., Bird, A.S. & Button, E.J. (1981) Compulsory admissions in a London Borough: II. Circumstances surrounding admission: service implications. Psychological Medicine, 11, 825–38.Google Scholar
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