MENTAL HEALTH LAW

Evaluate the provisions relating to the sectioning of patients under the Mental Health Act 2007



Abstract

The Community Mental Health Centers Act grew out of the movement to improve the treatment for the mentally ill, which expanded to include those with alcohol and other drug problems. It reversed over a century of federal nonsupport for mental health services exemplified by the 1854 vetoing of the Indigent Insane Bill by President Franklin Pierce. From then until the middle of the 1950s the public psychiatric asylum movement grew to serve as the dominant societal response to mental illness. In 1955 Congress passed the Mental Health Study Act, which led to the establishment of the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Mental Health; the Commission issued a set of recommendations that served as the basis for the subsequent 1963 act. The intent was to increase community mental health capacities, which were designed to complement and offset the hoped for trends of deinstitutionalization, particularly fewer hospital stays and shorter visits for mental illness. This particular piece of legislation was part of President John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. In this paper, we are evaluating the provisions relating to the sectioning of patients under the Mental Health Act 2007.

Evaluate the provisions relating to the sectioning of patients under the Mental Health Act 2007

Introduction

People have assumed for quite some time that there is a link between mental illness and crime. This is documented through decades of public opinion research. Historically, empirical findings have been mixed, with some studies showing no relationship and others showing a small significant correlation. Upon review of the research, it seems that little to no empirical relationship was documented between mental illness and crime or violence until the 1990s. A variety of researchers have since examined this issue in more detail, and most research does support a relationship between mental illness and criminal behavior or violence. Many believe that the results were mixed for so long due to methodological issues with the research that have since been able to be addressed. This section addresses some of the research with regard to the empirical relationship between mental illness and crime, as well as explores some of the theoretical implications of this relationship.

Background

James Bonta, Moira Law, and Karl Hanson conducted a meta-analysis that focused on mentally disordered offenders. These are offenders that suffer from a mental illness and that engaged in some type of behavior that triggered the involvement of the criminal justice system. Bonta et al. examined several individual risk factors for both general and violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders. With regard to general recidivism, they found that psychosis had effect sizes ranging from -.03 to .06, mood disorders had effect sizes that ranged from -.09 to .01, and antisocial personality disorder had effect sizes that ranged from .11 to .19.

The results were similar for violent recidivism, where effect sizes for psychosis ranged from -.07 to -.01, mood disorders effect sizes ranged from -.04 to ...