APPEALING AGAINST BEING DETAINED

There are two different types of appeal and you can use either or both. You can appeal to the Hospital Managers and/or the Mental Health Review Tribunals, both are described below. If you want to appeal speak to a member of hospital staff, or an advocate, and Power Tool 11 can help you to do this.

Appeal to the Hospital Managers

Hospital managers are people from the community who act for the hospital a bit like school governors do for schools. They are responsible for making sure that the Mental Health Act is used properly. One of the things that they can do is to hear appeals for discharge from Section 2 or 3.

At an appeal they will meet to review and hear your case. It can be really good to have an advocate or someone else who can help in the same way come to the review with you. Afterwards they will make a decision on what they think should happen.

In practice a hospital managers’ review is less formal and much quicker than a Tribunal (see below).

Appeal to the Tribunal

The Tribunal is a statutory (created by law) body that is responsible for hearing appeals of patients under detention. It is an independent organisation, much like a "mobile Court".

They are independent of the unit you are detained at and are usually made up of:

A legal person

A doctor, usually a psychiatrist

A lay member, with mental health experience

It is considered good practice that one member of the tribunal will have knowledge of or experience in the needs of under 18 year olds but this may not always be the case.

The patient, doctor and social worker will usually be at the tribunal.

All patients who appeal to Tribunals are entitled to legal representation (e.g. a solicitor) through Legal Aid. A solicitor will be able handle the whole thing for you.

It is considered important that you have a right to an independent review of your case so if you have been in hospital for six months or more, and have not made an appeal to the Tribunal against being detained under the Mental Health Act, then the Hospital Managers will make one on your behalf.  The same will happen if you then go for more than a year without a Tribunal hearing.

Some of these rules may be different if you’ve been sent to hospital by a court, or transferred from prison

Created by Advocacy in Somerset - Registered Charity No. 1093096

Initially funded by the Childrens Rights Alliance for England’s
Ready Steady Change Programme

Upgrade in 2008 funded by the National Institute for Mental Health in England
and the Department of Health

Copyright © Advocacy in Somerset Ltd 2009