ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an outline of the legal procedures involved in a person being considered under the Mental Health Act 1983 for psychiatric admission. A useful starting point to an analysis of these provisions is an outline of the legal categories of mental disorder and a comparison with medical categories. Having defined mental disorder in terms of the Act, the legal procedures may be outlined. The law perceives two categories of mentally ill offender, those who cannot be said to be responsible for their actions and those who are responsible but require treatment. Some explanation of the procedures are necessary in order fully to understand the process by which patients come to be held, under the Mental Health Act 1983, in conditions of security and the factors which influence this process. The procedures under which the courts may place a criminal offender in psychiatric provision are contained in the Mental Health Act 1983.
