Hi all - I hope everyone is doing okay.
I am starting my final year project for my university course. I am looking at an aspect of mental health, and I would be interested in your views around this area.
I am going to be looking at Section 136 of the Mental Health Act and it's impact on the human rights of service users. In particular, if we can improve the human rights of service users through schemes such as "Street Triage". For those who do not know, Section 136 is a section of the Mental Health Act which gives police officers the power to remove someone from a public place who they feel is suffering from a mental disorder and needs further assessment. A person can be detained and removed from a public place and kept in a "Place of Safety" (commonly a special suite in a psychiatric hospital, or in a police cell) for up to 72 hours to allow them to be assessed under the Mental Health Act (known as a Mental Health Act Assessment, or MHAA).
Street Triage is a new scheme which is operating in some parts of the UK where a psychiatric nurse will attend mental health related calls with police officers to try and decide if a person needs to be detained under section 136, rather than relying solely on a police officer's opinion. It has had some impact on section 136 numbers. In the areas I have looked at, the amount of section 136s have declined and the proportion of those detained under s136 who are then admitted to hospital have increased.
I would be interested if anyone has any areas that they feel could be explored further? If you have been detained under section 136, do you feel your human rights have been respected? Could something have been better? As service users, do you feel that this is an area that needs to be explored further?
Any feedback would be very welcome. If you would like to PM me instead then that is fine. Thank you so much for any responses.
In the meantime, I hope you are all well, and for those of you who are due to start university or go back to university, good luck!