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Section 5(4)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Clare Bowler  and
Sally-Ann Cooper
Clare Bowler
Affiliation:
Mental Illness Unit, Leicester General Hospital, Gwendolen Road, Leicester LE5 4PW
Sally-Ann Cooper
Affiliation:
Mental Illness Unit, Leicester General Hospital, Gwendolen Road, Leicester LE5 4PW
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The 1983 Mental Health Act brought several changes aimed at improving the rights of detained patients. Included was a new provision safeguarding the position of nursing staff – Section 5(4); no provision equivalent to the nurses' holding power existed in the 1959 Act. Nurses previously were expected to act in good faith to restrain patients where necessary while the doctor was sought. Such actions under common law were viewed by some to provide nurses with insufficient protection. The 1983 Act made clear the legal position of nurses. A suitably qualified psychiatric nurse can compulsorily detain a hospital patient receiving treatment for a mental disorder for up to six hours. This allows time for the responsible medical officer or nominated deputy to be obtained. The mental disorder must be of a degree where immediate detention is required to protect others from the patient, or to protect the patient's own health or safety.

Type
Audit in practice
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , March 1993 , pp. 147 - 149
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1993

References

Brown, N. S. (1991) Section 5(2) Audit (correspondence). Psychiatric Bulletin, 15, 706.Google Scholar
Code of Practice: Mental Health Act 1983 (1990). London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Cooper, S.-A. & Harper, R. (1992) Section 5(2): Who acts as the consultant's nominated deputy? Psychiatric Bulletin, 16, 759–761.Google Scholar
Joyce, J. P., Morris, M. B. & Palia, S. S. (1991) Section 5(2) Audit. Psychiatric Bulletin, 15, 224–225.Google Scholar
Pourgourides, C., Prasher, V. P. & Oyebode, F. (1992) Use of Section 5(2) in clinical practice. Psychiatric Bulletin, 16, 14–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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