Coercion and Consent, Monitoring the Mental Health Act 2007 - The Mental Health Act Commission Thirteenth Biennial Report 2007-2009 (Paperback)

This is the last report of the Mental Health Act Commission (MHAC), collating information on the use of powers in the Mental Health Act in England and Wales for the final two-year period (2007/08 and 2008/09). It is published posthumously, given the dissolution of the MHAC on the 1 April 2009 and the merging of its functions and resources into the Care Quality Commission and Health Inspectorate Wales on that date. The MHAC was established alongside the Mental Health Act 1983 to monitor, on behalf of the Secretary of State, the operation of its powers and discharge of its duties in respect of patients detained in hospital. This report is intended to bring into the public sphere the findings, observations, discussions and effectiveness of the MHAC, based on independent visits and monitoring of patients detained in hospital and Supervised Community Treatment (SCT) patients. It discusses the quality of mental health patients' experiences and their treatment and sets out observations and concerns about current and future mental health care. The MHAC report discusses all major projects and developments in this last reporting period; outlining trends in admissions under the Mental Health Act, the increasing relevance of the independent sector, characteristics of the detained population, conditions of patients' environments and the Mental Health Act in practice. The report concludes with an epilogue on the end of the Mental Health Act Commission. It looks at: the Mental Health Act in Context; the Mental Health Act in Practice; consent to treatment; the Mental Health Act and mentally disordered offenders; and, Deaths of Detained Patients.