MENTAL HEALTH ACT AND CASE LAW

Mental Health Act and Case Law



Abstract

The paper deals with the mental health law and how certain cases of suicidal attempt are taken in to account. This paper analyzes the case of a 24 year old young girl Melanie Rabone, how her suicidal attempt leads her towards a tragic death. Her parents took action against the Pennine Care NHS Trust, where their daughter was admitted. They started proceedings against the Pennine Care NHS Trust (“the trust”) alleging negligence and breach of the right to life protected by article 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”).

Mental Health Act and Case Law

Introduction

Mental Health Trusts owe a duty of care under Article 2 ECHR to voluntary patients as well as detained patients where they are a suicide risk; after they negligently agreed to a period of leave for a patient at high risk of suicide who subsequently killed herself.

Case Analysis

The case is about a 24 year old young girl Melanie Rabone. Sometime after 17.00 hours on 20 April 2005, Melanie Rabone hanged herself from a tree in Lyme Park, Cheshire. She was the loved daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rabone. At the time, she was on two days' home leave from Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport where she was undergoing treatment for a depressive disorder as an informal patient (i.e. one who was not detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 (“the MHA”)). She had been admitted to the hospital as an emergency following a suicide attempt. She was assessed by the hospital as a high risk of a further suicide attempt. Mr. and Mrs. Rabone have always maintained that the hospital authorities should not have allowed her home leave and that they were responsible for their daughter's tragic death. They started proceedings against the Pennine Care NHS Trust (“the trust”) alleging negligence and breach of the right to life protected by article 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”). The trust eventually admitted negligence, but they have never admitted liability for breach of article 2 (Doebbler, 2006).

A number of issues were raised in the proceedings all of which are live in this appeal. The claim failed because the judge (Simon J) held that the operational duty implicit in article 2 did not apply in this case: there was no duty on the hospital authorities under article 2 to take reasonable steps to guard Melanie against the risk of suicide: [2010] EWHC 1827. He also held that, if there was such a duty, there had been no breach of it by the trust on the facts of this case. The Court of Appeal (Rix, Stanley Burnton and Jackson LJJ) dismissed Mr and Mrs. Rabone's appeal. The only substantive judgment was given by Jackson LJ (now reported at [2011] QB 1019). They agreed that there was no operational duty, but held that if there had been such a duty, the trust would have ...