Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, which came into effect on 5 October 2005, is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which enables medical professionals to detain and treat people against their will on grounds of mental disorder, with the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland providing safeguards against mistreatment.
It largely replaces the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984.
The act provides for short term detention certificates and emergency detention certificates.
Short term certificates are referred to by the act as the 'preferred gateway' to detention, and lead, notionally, to up to 28 days detention during which treatment may be administered against the will of the detainee, and can also lead to compulsory treatment orders, which have longer term implications for the detainee's liberty.
Detainees can apply to the Mental Health Tribunal for revocation of short term certificates.
Emergency certificates lead, notionally, to up to 72 hours detention, and can also lead to detentions under short term certificates.
Emergency certificates do not enable treatment against the will of detainees, except for urgent treatment, and there is no formal process of appeal against them.
Unless a certificate is completed for someone who is already in a mental health hospital, both forms of detention are preceded by detention of up to 72 hours in what are called 'places of safety', while transport to hospital is arranged.
Also, short term detentions may be extended for periods of up to three 'working days', to facilitate applications to the Mental Health Tribunal for compulsory treatment orders.
Saturdays, Sundays, and Scottish bank holidays are not counted as working days.
The law is based on a set of principles. These principles should be taken into account by anyone involved in a person's care and treatment.
If you are a patient, you should be given the information and support you need to take part in decisions about your care and treatment. To help service users get their views across, the new Act puts in place the right to access independent advocacy services. It also puts in place advance statements as a way to help service users say what care and treatment they would and would not want to have. We will be checking on cases where a person's advance statement has been overridden.
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