Mental health

Generally, it was undesirable to extend the meaning of medical treatment under the Mental Health Act 1983 too far so as to bring about deprivation of liberty in respect of sectioned or sectionable patients beyond what was properly within the ambit of the Act. There was a recognisable need for identifying a clear dividing line between what was and what was not treatment for a mental disorder with the meaning of the Act, but in medicine, as in the law, it was not always possible to discern clear dividing lines. In case of uncertainty the appropriate course was for an application to be made to the court to approve the treatment. That approach ensured that the treatment given under s 63 would be confined to that which was properly within the definition of s 145.