ABSTRACT
This chapter examines factors which influenced the discharge of people with learning disabilities from psychiatric facilities. It also examines the potential of the United Kingdom's subsequent case law, social policy initiatives, and proposed mental health legislative reform for the hospital discharge of people with learning disabilities. The rationale will be considered in light of the findings of the mental health act commission (MHAC) in England and Wales and social science research regarding the impact of institutionalisation. The chapter investigates the rationale for discharge and contemplates whether the law governing discharge functions in a therapeutic or anti-therapeutic fashion. Therapeutic jurisprudence has been described as "the use of social science research to study the extent to which a rule or practice promotes the psychological or physical well-being of the people it affects".
