It is indeed an emotionally painful experience to see your loved one being detained in a psychiatric hospital. I hope he or she will recover soon and be released from the facility and continue to chase his dreams and be a productive member of society.
There are special provisions made under the Mental Disorders (Care and Treatment) Act to ensure that there is proper care and treatment for this group of vulnerable individuals in our society.
The Act states that ‘Where a medical practitioner has under his care a person believed to be mentally disordered or to require psychiatric treatment, he may send the person to a designated medical practitioner at a psychiatric institution for treatment and that designated medical practitioner may thereafter act in accordance with section 10.[MDTA, s. 34).
The Act also states that ‘A designated medical practitioner at a psychiatric institution who has examined any person who is suffering from a mental disorder and is of the opinion that he should be treated, or continue to be treated, as an inpatient at the psychiatric institution may at any time sign an order in accordance with Form 1 in the Schedule —(a)for the admission of the person into the psychiatric institution for treatment; or(b)in the case of an inpatient, for the detention and further treatment of the person, and the person may be detained for a period of 72 hours commencing from the time the designated medical practitioner signed the order.’
Patients can be detained for observation and/or treatment if they are found to be suicidal, aggressive, violent or lacking the capacity to look after himself or herself.
