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MENTAL HEALTH (CARE AND TREATMENT) (SCOTLAND) ACT 2003 TRANSITIONAL TRAINING GUIDE INTRODUCTORY TRAINING FOR MENTAL HEALTH OFFICERS AND OTHER PRACTITIONERS SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCE REPORTS
ANNEX A
Answers to the fourth self-assessed test of knowledge (Reader 4)
1.
Q: List as many circumstances ('Relevant Events') as you are able, in which the 2003 Act requires the designated MHO to produce an SCR.
A: After any of the following:
The making of:
Of course it would be unreasonable of us to expect you to be able to reel this list off, from the top of your head. However, we would expect you to have been able to identify some of the more central events that trigger an SCR: Short-term Detention, CTO and perhaps one or two of the criminal procedures orders.
2.
Q: Within what period must an SCR be completed?
A: Within 21 days of the certificate being granted or the Order being made.
3.
Q: Is it always the case that an SCR must be produced after a 'relevant event'?
A: No.
While you may still not be familiar with the technical term 'relevant event', we would hope that the term triggered your knowledge that the designated
MHO need not compile a report if it 'would serve little, or no, practical purpose.'
4.
Q: At what stages of the process from being charged with an offence through to sentencing may a person be made subject to an Assessment or a Treatment Order?
A: Either before conviction or before sentencing.
5.
Q: How long does an Assessment Order last for?
A: Up to 28 days, non-renewable. But extendable once by 7 days, subject to
certain grounds, and application to the court by a medical practitioner.
6.
Q: What sorts of offences might a Court consider making an Interim Compulsion Order for?
A: More serious offences, where a custodial sentence would be considered (other than in the case of murder). More specifically, an Interim Compulsion Order is almost always required to secure a lengthy period of assessment before a Restriction Order is considered. Therefore, an Interim Compulsion Order may be considered where further assessment is required to investigate the conditions of serious risk to the public and the relationship between that risk and the mental disorder.
We would not expect you to get this answer perfectly correct. For example, we would not expect you to fully recall the complexities of Compulsion Orders in relation to restriction orders.
7.
Q: What reports are required of an MHO for a Compulsion Order?
A: The MHO should be required to submit just one (Mental Health Officer) report but it should contain a care plan within it and, if the CO is to be requested alongside a restriction order, it must give consideration to the suitability of that order.
8.
Q: What medical evidence is required for a Compulsion Order?
A: As with a CTO:
The existence of mental disorder, about which both practitioners must agree;
The availability of medical treatment likely to alleviate or prevent the disorder from worsening; and
The risk factors (health, safety, welfare or risk to the safety of any other person), and the necessity of making the order.
Unlike a CTO, the test of impairment to the ability to make treatment decisions is missing from the list of similarities above.
There is an additional criterion for the Compulsion Order that the offender must have been convicted of an imprisonable offence other than murder.
This is another of those situations in which we cannot reasonably expect you to have the list of conditions for the order off pat. We would hope one of two things- that you either knew an approximation of the answer or (the MHOs fall-back position) that you knew where to look in the Act, to find the answer.
9. Q: When may a Restriction Order be made?
A: As discussed in question 6, a Restriction Order is required to investigate the conditions of serious risk to the public and the relationship between that risk and the mental disorder.
We would hope that you do have an approximation of answer fixed in your mind, if only to the extent that the seriousness of a Restriction Order is such that it must be viewed in relation to public protection.
10. Q: Once made by a Court, how do Compulsion Orders differ from CTOs made by the Tribunal in civil procedures?
A: Upon any extension or variation by the Tribunal, Compulsion Orders are the same as CTOs. However, before that point there is no right for the patient or the named person to apply for the order to be revoked and there is no right to advocacy.
Unlike a CTO, a Compulsion Order must be referred to the Tribunal by the RMO, at the point of its First Review.
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