Nigel Turner's HyperGUIDE to the Mental Health Act

Effect of Guardianship

Once someone is received into Guardianship under Section 7, the Guardian, and only the Guardian her/himself, has the power to:

• require the person to live at a particular place
• require the person to go to specific places at specific times for the purpose of:
  
  • medical treatment
  • occupation
  • education
  • training
• require that a doctor, Approved Social Worker, or other specified person must be given access to the person under Guardianship.

Notes on Guardianship

Treatment Cannot be Imposed

Guardianship is an example of the proverb, "you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink". While the Guardian can insist that the person attends, for example, an appointment with a psychiatrist, there is no requirement that any medical treatment has to be accepted. There is a strong civil rights argument against forcing people in the community to take medication or other treatment against their will. This argument held sway in the drafting of the 1983 Mental Health Act, and the principle is still enshrined in the more recent Mental Health (Patients in the Community) Act 1995.

Use of Guardianship

The powers of a Guardian are hard to enforce in practice and are not a way of enforcing treatment. Perhaps because of these factors, Guardianship has been relatively little used in practice, in the case of people with mental health needs. Its use has been largely restricted to people with learning disabilities who fall within the Section 1 definitions of mental impairment or severe mental impairment.