MENTAL HEALTH

Mental Health and Capacity Acts



Mental Health and Capacity Acts

Introduction

The presented case study is a crystal clear case of the famous mental disease called 'Dementia'. In order to know the technicalities about the Dementia and applications of various acts, it is necessary to understand the disease in depth along with the policies and rules presented in the English law. Dementia cannot be termed as disease rather it is a term which is used to describe the reduction or fall in the overall mental health of the person which has been impacting his/her as well as lives of other. The degree of severity is quite high in most of the cases of Dementia's patients; an example of it is well evident from the case study which has been assigned. Memory losses also fall in the domain of Dementia. Most commonly two broad types of diseases cover the dementia's domain. First one is the Alzheimer's disease which is quite common and account for around 60 to 80 percent of the total dementia's cases. Another one which is related to our case, is Vascular dementia which normally develops in person after some stroke and hence is the second largest case of dementia found in UK. Although, the disease does have its symptoms, which includes the vitamin deficiency along with thyroid problems.

Dementia is often mistakenly referred to as “senile dementia” or “senility” which shows the previous and most common perception of decline of mental illness as part and parcel of aging. Although there are various laws related to dementia which are enacted all across the UK, a better understanding of this law would serve us on a longer run to understand the case as well as take necessary actions to avoid any such mishaps (Alz.org, 2012).

Mental Health Act (1983)

The act is quite helpful to pinpointing the people having a mental disorder and making their arrangements for shifting them to detainment centres, hospitals and other treat them without even their own consent. This would look against the basic human rights but, in fact it is done for the betterment of them along with keeping in mind the health and safety issues of patients as well as other people and specifically neighbours. The act of detainment of 80 years old woman was, therefore, not an inhuman act rather it had been conducted as per the laws of norms which are followed within the United Kingdom. The act was also substantially changed and more specifically amended in 2007 and was enacted in England, and Wales at first to facilitate smooth operations.

Various people are either detained, admitted or sometimes treated under the Mental Health Act. Moreover, the various actions are strongly dependent on the persons conditions and previous records, this is the reason behind the use of term “sectioned” is employed to determine the compulsory and mandatory admission to the hospital. Those people who are admitted on the continuous basis to the hospitals is termed as “involuntary” or “formal” ...