Police Admissions to a Mental Observation Ward

Abstract

The implications of the Mental Health Act, 1959, have yet to be fully realised, but there is little doubt that reorganisation of existing psychiatric services and establishment of new psychiatric units will be required. The intelligent planning ol such services requires a basis of factual data. The purpose of the present study is twofold, first to provide statistical data and secondly to discuss their clinical and administrative relevance. It is thus hoped to provide a base-line relating to psychiatric emergencies upon which some effects of the Mental Health Act, 1959, may be determined. No paper had previously dealt with police admissions to a mental observation ward and this study attempts to correct this omission. Although police may be involved at a number of points in the chain of events leading up to a patient's admission, only those admitted on a Police Three-day Order (Lunacy Act, 1890) are the subject of the present study.