The origins of recent mental health legislation are briefly reviewed. Practices in the spirit rather than the letter of the 1983 Act are compared by studying one hundred periods of detention at its inception and another hundred four years later. There had been little change, and improvement only in rates of use of emergency powers and very short Section 2s.
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References
1.
BluglassR. (1983) A Guide to the Mental Health Act 1983. Edinburgh, Churchill Livingstone.
2.
Lord Percy of Newcastle (Chairman) (1957) Royal Commission on the Law relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency 1954–1957. London: HMSO.
