Mental Health Act 1983: Encyclopedia II - Mental Health Act 1983 - Physical illness

Mental Health Act 1983 - Physical illness

The Mental Health Act 1983 provides the legal framework for the assessment and/or treatment of mental disorders. It does not provide for the assessment or treatment of physical illness. There has been substantial case law to confirm this interpretation. Thus, a person who has, say, schizophrenia, as well as, say, kidney failure requiring dialysis, but who is refusing that treatment, cannot be dialysed against his or her wishes under the Mental Health Act 1983. This stands even if it is symptoms of schizophrenia inform the person’s wishes about dialysis – if, for instance, he or she believes that the dialysis machine is an extermination device planted by the CIA. In such a case, however, it might be deemed that the person lacks the mental capacity to consent to the treatment of the physical illness, in this case dialysis, and, as such, can be given the treatment, in good faith and in the person’s best interests, under common law.

Another common example of this boundary in practice is a person who has a short-lived confused state as a result of a physical illness such as an infection or a heart attack, but who is refusing or interfering with the assessment or treatment of the underlying condition. Although it is technically legal to detain such a person under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act, this is rarely carried out in practice. This is because the Act does not give doctors and nurses authority to assess or treat the physical illness.

An apparent exception to this rule is anorexia nervosa. Enforced re-feeding of severely emaciated persons with anorexia nervosa is allowed under the Act, because anorexia nervosa is classed as a mental illness and re-feeding is seen to constitute the first stage in treatment for severe cases of that mental illness.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Physical illness", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki