Blackstone's Guide to the Mental Health Act 2007 [Paperback]

As a mental health student nurse studying for a BSc (hons) Degree, there are two areas that I continually struggle with day in and day out, the first is medication and the second is the Mental Health Act 1983, can you imagine the confusion when the Amended Mental Health Act 2007 came out. This book has been really good for me as it not only includes the full mental health act but also the amendments from 2007. also, this book includes mental capacity act. Basically, it has everything you need to help you plough through the current legislation in preparation for the 2007 act implementation in October. Details of certain mental act sections are easily located and explained. I did ponder about awarding 4 stars to this publication as a lot of the work tends to be a little wordy and could have been written in a much more basic form, but it cannot be faulted for it's content, therefore it got 5 stars. I am a degree student and found some of the chapters really hard going, but saying that, the mental health act is very difficult to read through. the book is concise and accurate and does explain a great deal about legislation background and how the amendment came about and what fuelled it's implementation. Overall this book would benefit any psychiatric student, mental health worker, approved social worker or mental health related doctors. Basically anyone who has dealings with mental health services on a professional level. as a student, i am very selective of the publications I purchase, this is one of the very very very few books that bring in the new 2007 mental health act, therefore it warranted a purchase and I am very pleased I did. It is well written, contains detailed explanations and above all, set out easily so certain information can be easily and quickly found. To keep its different sections apart it is split into 2 sections, the first is around the reform of the mental health act and the second is in regards to the mental capacity act. As it states in the book the title is a little misleading as it is really a book about two pieces of legislation, the mental health act 1983 and the mental capacity act 2005 as they have been amended by the 2007 act.
Overall, a great book, well put together. I would recommend this book to anyone who is studying to be in or already in the mental health services. Paul Bowen has put together a publication that can put to bed any confusing thoughts you had around the mental health act and as I have said before, in great time as the new act comes into affect in October 2008. This book is a credit to my collection of mental health related academic literature.

Doughty Chambers barrister, Paul Bowen, specialises in human rights law and public law and has used his considerable knowledge to assemble an excellent guide to a technically complex area of social importance: mental health issue- the area few want to talk about.

The Mental Health Act of 2007, and the earlier Mental Capacity Act of 2005, are both reproduced in this guide that delivers the concise and accessible information on the latest legislative changes and amendments now in force.

The recent history of the new legislation has been controversial, so the guide gives an introduction to the substantial amendments to the existing 1983 Act by analysing the amendments in two parts:

Part 1 covers reform of the 1983 Act with an introduction and background to the subject including the effect of the Human Rights Act. It then goes on to cover six headings: an overview of the 1983 Act and its amendments; amendments to the criteria for guardianship and detention under the 1983 Act; additional safeguards for patients in relation to admission and detention; supervised community treatment; medical treatment for mental disorder under the 1983 Act; and other amendments.

Part 2 covers the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its amendments beginning with and introduction and overview. There are seven specific sections dealing with: care and treatment at common law; care and treatment without detention under the 2005 Act; detention for care and treatment under the 2005 Act; standard and urgent authorisations; representation of schedule A1 detainees; the Court of Protection, the Public Guardian, and the Court of Protection Visitors; and finally the interface between the detention and treatment regimes after the three main acts and at common law.

Apart from the full text of the three Acts, appendix 4 covers, in diagram form, the Standard Authorisation Procedure Under Schedule A1 of the 2005 Act which students and practitioners alike will find of great use. Cases and terms and abbreviations are also useful extras for the guide which gives timely and expert commentary on the meaning and effects of the three pieces of legislation.

The foreword, by James Munby, is sensitive and to the point when he highlights Bowen's reassuring approach with the debate on whether the redefinition of `mental disorder' and the replacement of the previous `treatability' test, for instance, may prove to have what the judge describes as "the undesirable consequences that many feared".

The hotchpotch of the provisions which have been amended are clearly the pathfinders for future argument and judgements with the inevitable human rights challenges.

I found the final chapter one of the most important ones in the guide when Bowen covers the interface between the 1983 and 2005 Acts. The guide is also a practical approach because it prints the two Acts showing which words have been deleted and which words have been added by the 2007 Act, so that the reader can compare the `old' and the `new' texts at a glance.

The Mental Health Act guide from Blackstone is a fair statement of what has happened since the process was started ten years ago by Professor Richardson.

There is a certain inevitability in the somewhat frustrated view of Paul Bowen that "still, this is the legislation we have, so we had better get used to it"!

It is a fair statement of the anguish which the parliamentarians had when they debated these sections. I welcome this important guide as the perfect companion for all practitioners who need to be up to speed with this analysis of the latest set of rules since the introduction of the Human Rights Act whilst Blackstone's guides remain cost effective solutions to the vastness, complexity and expense of legal rules today.

Very usefull and essential book. Easy to read and understand the Mental health law. Delivery was slightly late but within the promised time. Packaging very good as well