That produces the danger that a patient for

That produces the danger that a patient for whom no appropriate treatment is available may be contained for public safety rather than detained for treatment. The solution lies in the tribunal’s duty to ensure that the conditions for continued detention are satisfied. The tribunal must investigate behind assertions, generalisations and standard phrases. By focusing on specific questions, it will ensure that it makes an individualised assessment for the particular patient. What precisely is the treatment that can be provided? What discernible benefit may it have on this patient? Is that benefit related to the patient’s mental disorder or to some unrelated problem? Is the patient truly resistant to engagement? The tribunal’s reasons then need only reflect what it did in the inquisitorial and decision-making stages.

how the Mental Health Act works, and could work better, with the Mental Capacity. Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards; how the mental health tribunals system works and could be better understood; how the Code fits with the Care Quality Commission’s regulatory model; how the Code applies to non-English patients treated in England what the arrangements are for English patients not treated in England (crossborder issues); and how to make understanding and knowledge of the Code better understood for individuals, their families and carers.