Users' questions

Can psychiatrists detain you?

Can psychiatrists detain you?

To discharge a patient from the emergency room who is mentally ill, but not actively a threat to herself or others, is a physician’s only legal option. Thus, despite being legal and constitutional, a hospital’s power to unilaterally detain patients without judicial oversight raises difficult questions.

Can doctors detain patients?

Section 5(2) gives doctors the ability to detain someone in hospital for up to 72 hours, during which time you should receive an assessment that decides if further detention under the Mental Health Act is necessary.

What are mental asylum doctors called?

Psychiatrists. These professionals are medical doctors who specialize in the treatment of mental, emotional, or behavioral problems. A psychiatrist can prescribe medications. They may hold therapy sessions or work with non-medical therapists to treat you.

What is a 1799 medical hold?

In addition to these holds, the law provides for a 24-hour 1799 medical hold, placed by a physician, in which a patient who comes to the emergency room for medical treatment and is then discovered also to have a psychiatric problem that requires attention.

Can a person be detained for mental illness?

One of the doctors must be specially certified as having particular experience in the assessment or treatment of mental illness. The length of time you could be detained for depends on the type of mental health condition you have and your personal circumstances at the time. You could be detained for:

Can a Gardai detain a patient in a psychiatric hospital?

In this situation, the Gardai have the power to enter premises by force and may detain or restrain the patient if necessary. When you are received at an approved psychiatric centre, you must be examined by a consultant psychiatrist on the staff. You may be detained for a maximum of 24 hours in the centre for this examination.

Can a psychiatrist deprive someone of their liberty?

Normally you can’t deprive someone of their liberty unless they’ve committed a crime. That isn’t the case, however, if three senior mental health professionals agree that detention is the right course of action.

Can you be involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital?

You can read more in our document on the rights of psychiatric patients. Under the Mental Health Act 2001, you may be involuntarily admitted and detained in an approved psychiatric centre if you are suffering from a mental disorder.

In this situation, the Gardai have the power to enter premises by force and may detain or restrain the patient if necessary. When you are received at an approved psychiatric centre, you must be examined by a consultant psychiatrist on the staff. You may be detained for a maximum of 24 hours in the centre for this examination.

One of the doctors must be specially certified as having particular experience in the assessment or treatment of mental illness. The length of time you could be detained for depends on the type of mental health condition you have and your personal circumstances at the time. You could be detained for:

Can a person be committed to a psychiatric hospital?

Based on fictional Hollywood depictions of people being committed to a psychiatric ward against their will, or similar scenes in novels, you might think sharing such thoughts, even in a clinical setting, might land a patient in the psychiatric unit of a hospital.

Can a person be held against their will in a psychiatric facility?

In the states in which I’ve practiced, there’s no requirement to hold people against their will if they’re requesting to leave a psychiatric facility, but there is a legal mechanism to allow the attending some time (typically, a maximum of 72 hours) to make a determination about whether or not it is safe to let the individual go.