ABSTRACT
Introduction Healthcare professionals who care for people with mental health problems need to have an understanding of the legislation that is specific to people with mental health problems. It may be useful to revisit the work on consent in Chapter 5 looking at the rules governing people giving, or not giving, consent. The general rule of treating mentally competent patients is that they have exercised their autonomy to consent to treatment and this is encapsulated in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 section 2(1) (hereafter referred to as the MCA 2005). Equally, the MCA 2005 allows competent people to refuse to consent if they so desire. Moreover, the common law makes it possible as well as clear that the right to consent in the matter of a person’s medical treatment is essential (R v Sullivan [1984] AC 156). Even a competent patient with a mental disorder may be able to refuse to consent to treatment (Re C (Adult: Refusal of Treatment) [1994] 1 WLR 290). The general consent rule indicates that where a patient who has capacity temporarily becomes incapacitated, for example by a state of unconsciousness, that person may be given emergency treatment under common law under the principle of treating the patient in his/her best interest. With respect to the principle that a mentally competent adult must normally first consent to treatment before he is treated, there is a statutory exception to this rule, made possible by the Mental Health Act 1983 (hereafter referred to as the MHA 1983) as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007 (hereafter referred to as the 2007 Act).
