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A time to keep silent and a time to speak

Reviewing the Mental Health Act

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

A. S. Zigmond
A. S. Zigmond*
Affiliation:
High Royds Hospital, Menston, West Yorkshire LS29 6AQ
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The final report of the Scoping Study Committee (Richardson Committee) reviewing the Mental Health Act 1983 is eagerly awaited. All psychiatrists, either individually or through the College, had an opportunity to express their views on what changes in legislation are needed and to comment on the draft proposals (Scoping Study Committee, 1999). Many psychiatrists did neither. Yet to use modem terminology, psychiatrists are one of the major ‘stakeholders' of mental health legislation. A valuable way of ascertaining colleagues' views in a structured way is by surveys of the type conducted by Buchanan & Gunn (1999, this issue). Given that the Richardson Committee has yet to publish proposals for ‘Part III’ the survey is timely. The response rate is, of course, very important and one is left wondering why a third of the general and community psychiatrists did not respond. Work load, burn-out or lack of familiarity with Part III of the Act are possible explanations.

Type
Editorials
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 23 , Issue 12: The Journal of Trends in Psychiatric Practice , December 1999 , pp. 705 - 706
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 © 1999 Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

Office for National Statistics (1999) Annual Abstract of Statistics. London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Buchanan, A. & Gunn, J. (1999) What do psychiatrists think about Part III of the Mental Health Act? Psychiatric Bulletin, 23, 721 725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Home Office & Department of Health (1999) Managing Dangerous People With Severe Personality Disorder. London: Home Office.Google Scholar
Mental Health Act Commission (1999) Eighth Biennial Report Nottingham: Mental Health Act Commission.Google Scholar
Scoping Study Committee (1999) Draft Outline Proposals. London: Department of Health.Google Scholar
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