'Trust me, I'm a patient': locked doors, absconding and PICU

Legitimate concerns had been levelled at services, that patients could too easily leave mental health inpatient facilities and had very often come to harm. The UK Mental Health Act Code of Practice (DH 2015) principle 1 requires that a person is subjected to no greater levels of restriction than the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of psychiatric intensive care Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 59 - 62
Main Authors Dix, Roland, Galvin, Gail
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published East Kilbride National Association of Psychiatric Intensive Care and Low Secure Units, NAPICU 08.12.2022
Subjects
Health facilities
Mental health care
Patient safety
Suicides & suicide attempts
United Kingdom > UK
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Summary:Legitimate concerns had been levelled at services, that patients could too easily leave mental health inpatient facilities and had very often come to harm. The UK Mental Health Act Code of Practice (DH 2015) principle 1 requires that a person is subjected to no greater levels of restriction than their condition warrants. Beyond the innate serious questions as to the appropriateness of locking-in voluntary patients with the belief that signs and requests to leave are adequate protection of liberty, is the plight of the formally detained mental health patients. For more than a decade, the logic has prevailed that people in mental health facilities are vulnerable and represent risks, doors are justifiably locked and therefore the situation for all is safer.
ISSN:1742-6464
1744-2206
DOI:10.20299/jpi.2022.014