Hello and welcome to the zero to finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode

I'm going to be talking to you about the Mental Health Act. And you can find written notes on

this topic at zero to finals.com slash mental health act or in the psychiatry section

of the 0 to finals more medicine book. And you can find questions to train your knowledge on this content

and help you remember the information for longer at members.0.0.com. So let's get straight into it.

The Mental Health Act from 1983 and updated in 2007 provides a legal framework for keeping

patients in hospital against their wishes for assessment and treatment of a mental health disorder.

This is called being detained or sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

When a patient who has capacity agrees to be admitted to hospital voluntarily, this is called

a voluntary or informal admission. An informal admission

does not involve detention under the Mental Health Act. Section 131 of the Mental Health Act

explains that a patient can be admitted without involving the Mental Health Act.

Let's talk about the people involved.

An approved mental health professional or AMHP or AMP is a specially qualified professional,

for example a social worker or a mental health nurse that helps to

organize and contribute to Mental Health Act assessments. A Section 12 doctor is a qualified and

approved doctor, usually a psychiatrist who can undertake Mental Health Act assessments.

The responsible clinician is the person with overall responsibility for the patient's care,

generally a psychiatry consultant. The nearest relative is someone close to the patient

who is responsible for looking out for the

patient's interests. The Mental Health Act has an ordered list that dictates who fits

the role of the nearest relative. An independent mental health advocate, or IMHA, is an

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