Mental Treatment Act 1930
Mental Treatment Act, 1930
(20 & 21 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 23.
An Act to amend the Lunacy Acts, 1890 to 1922, and such of the provisions of the Mental Deficiency Acts, 1913 to 1927, as relate to the constitution and organisation of the work of the Board of Control, the exercise of the powers of the Board and the protection of persons putting those Acts into operation.
[10th July 1930]
B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Voluntary Patients.
Voluntary Patients.
1 Power to receive voluntary patients.
(1) Any person who is desirous of voluntarily submitting himself to treatment for mental illness, and who makes a written application for the purpose to the person in charge, may without a reception order be received as a voluntary patient in an institution within the meaning of this Act, or in any hospital, nursing home or place approved for the purposes of this section by the Board of Control, or into the charge as a single patient of a person so approved, and any approval under this section may be granted subject to such conditions as the Board think proper and may be revoked at any time.
(2) Any person under the age of sixteen whose parent or guardian is desirous of submitting him to treatment for mental illness may, if the parent or guardian makes to the person in charge a written application for the purpose accompanied by a medical recommendation, be received as a voluntary patient under this section, but such a person shall not be so received on his own application.
(3) The medical recommendation referred to in the last subsection shall—
(a ) be signed by a registered medical practitioner, who shall be either the usual medical attendant of the person to whom the application relates, or a medical practitioner who has been approved for the purpose of making such a recommendation either by the Board of Control or by the local authority within whose area the said person then is; and
(b ) state the qualifications of the medical practitioner, the date or dates on which he examined the said person, and that the said person is likely to be benefited by being received as a voluntary patient for treatment for mental illness under this section.
(4) A medical recommendation shall cease to have effect for the purposes of this section on the expiration of fourteen days from the last date on which the person to whom the recommendation relates was examined by the medical practitioner for the purpose of making the recommendation.
(5) Any person received as a voluntary patient under this section may leave the institution, hospital, home or place upon giving to the person in charge seventy-two hours' notice in writing of his intention to do so, or if he is a person under the age of sixteen upon such notice being given by his parent or guardian.
(6) For the purposes of this section, the expression ‘guardian’ in relation to a person under the age of sixteen includes any person having the charge of the person under sixteen.
2 Notice of reception, death and departure of voluntary patients and provisions as to discharge of patients.
(1) Where a person is received as a voluntary patient under the foregoing section of this Act or under the provisions of any local Act, notice of his reception shall before the expiration of the second day after the day on which he was so received be sent to the Board of Control in the case of a patient in an institution which has a visiting committee, by the clerk of the institution, and in any other case by the person in charge.
(2) If a person received as aforesaid dies in or departs from the institution, hospital, home or place where he was residing, notice of the fact shall, before the expiration of the second day after the day of the death or departure, be sent to the Board of Control in the case of a patient in an institution which has a visiting committee, by the clerk of the institution, and in any other case by the person in charge.
(3) If any person received as aforesaid becomes at any time incapable of expressing himself as willing or unwilling to continue to receive treatment, he shall not thereafter be retained as a voluntary patient for a longer period than twenty-eight days, and shall, if he has not been previously discharged, be discharged on the expiration of twenty-eight days from the date on which he became incapable of so expressing himself, unless in the meantime, he has again become capable of so expressing himself, or steps have been taken to deal with him either under the principal Act as a person of unsound mind or under section five of this Act as a person who is likely to benefit by temporary treatment.
(4) If a person who is under the age of sixteen and who has been received as aforesaid ceases to have any parent or guardian, or if his parents or guardians are incapable of performing, or refuse or persistently neglect to perform, their duty as such, the person in charge shall send to the Board of Control a report as to the circumstances of the case and the condition of the patient, and the Board shall forthwith consider the report and give such directions with respect to the case as they think fit.
(5) If any person fails to give any notice required to be given by him under subsection (1) or subsection (2) of this section, he shall for each day or part of a day during which the default continues be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.
3 Visitation of voluntary patients.
(1) Any commissioner may at any time visit a person received as a voluntary patient under section one of this Act or under the provisions of any local Act, and report to the Board of Control on the case.
(2) If the Board of Control are of opinion that the mental state of any such voluntary patient is such as to render him unfit to remain as a voluntary patient, they may order the person in charge either to discharge the patient, or to take steps to deal with him cither under the principal Act as a person of unsound mind or under section five of this Act as a person who is likely to benefit by temporary treatment.
4 Power to lodge relatives and friends of patients.
4. Any relative or friend of a person who is received as a patient under any of the provisions of the principal Act or this Act or any local Act may be received and lodged as a boarder in any registered hospital or licensed house as long as the patient is resident therein:
Provided that for the purposes of the provisions of the principal Act relating to the number of patients who may be received in such hospitals or houses any such relative or friend shall be reckoned as a patient unless he is lodged in a part of the hospital or house not permitted to be used for the accommodation of patients.
Temporary Treatment without Certification.
Temporary Treatment without Certification.
5 Provision for temporary treatment without certification of certain persons.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a person who is suffering from mental illness and is likely to benefit by temporary treatment but is for the time being incapable of expressing himself as willing or unwilling to receive such treatment may, on a written application duly made in accordance with the provisions of this section but without a reception order, be received as a temporary patient for the purpose of treatment—
(i) into an institution maintained by a local authority; or
(ii) into a registered hospital; or
(iii) into any such other institution, hospital or nursing home as may be approved by the Board of Control for the reception of such temporary patients; or
(iv) with the consent of the Board of Control, into charge as a single patient.
(2) An application under this section must be in the form set out in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act, must be made to the person in charge and must, if possible, be made by the husband or wife, or by a relative of the person to whom it relates, or, on the request of the husband or wife or of a relative, by a duly authorised officer of the local authority within whose area the said person then is, and, if the application is not so made, it shall contain a statement of the reason why it is not so made, of the connection of the applicant with the person to whom it relates and of the circumstances in which he makes the application.
(3) The application shall be accompanied by a recommendation in the form set out in Part II of the First Schedule to this Act, signed by two registered medical practitioners, of whom one shall be a medical practitioner (not being the usual medical attendant of the person to whom the application relates) approved by the Board of Control for the purpose of making recommendations under this section and the other shall be, if practicable, the usual medical attendant of the person to whom the application relates:
Provided that in the case of a person who is to be received into a licensed house or a nursing home or into charge as a single patient the recommendation shall not be signed by the person in charge, or by any person in the employment of the person in charge, or by any person interested in the house or home, or by any person in the employment of any person so interested.
(4) Each of the medical practitioners by whom a recommendation under this section is to be made shall, before signing the recommendation, examine the person to whom the recommendation relates either separately or in conjunction with the other and shall specify in the recommendation the...
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