ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an effective overview and to highlight the amendments to the Mental Health Act 1983. The Mental Health Act plays a different role, as it is only used where the patient has capacity to make a decision about his or her treatment but that person refuses to consent to treatment. The categories of mental disorder which have been removed are 'severe mental impairment' and 'severely mentally impaired', 'mental impairment' and 'mentally impaired' and 'psychopathic disorder'. The government expressed concern that the 1983 Act failed to allow a person to be considered to be suffering from a mental disorder if he displayed signs of 'promiscuity or other immoral conduct' or 'sexual deviancy'. Community treatment orders are an alternative to treatment in hospital and allow a person with a mental disorder to have the relative freedom of living in the community rather than being detained in hospital.
