CPN –
Community Psychiatric Nurse. Often also called a 'care-coordinator',
though this might be a social worker or other member of the team
instead.
Crisis Team / Home
Treatment Team – Crisis Teams are basically there to provide an
alternative to hospital admission. They also gatekeep the few
psychiatric beds there are. In principle this means they visit
people at home rather than the person needing to be in hospital. In
practice it seems to mean they either decide to admit you to hospital
or treat you as a complete waste of time and do nothing. The Crisis
Team are usually the people who will conduct an emergency psychiatric
assessment if you go to A&E or are held under a police section.
Section 136
– Referred to in this blog as a 'police section'. Section 136 of
the Mental Health Act (1983) gives police officers the power to
remove an individual from a public place to a 'place of
safety' for up to 72 hours for the purpose of getting them a
psychiatric assessment.
Sections 2-5
of the Mental Health Act cover what might be called
'hospital sections'. These are applied by doctors and other
professionals, and are used when it is felt an individual requires
compulsory admittance to hospital. This is usually what people mean
when they talk of someone 'being
sectioned'.
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