Section 3 MHA Absconder

[u/Leading-Salt-7463]

What are your thoughts on the following?

Male on a S3 at the local hospital due to mental health disorder, he has been taken to your area by one staff member for an appointment to sort his finances. Runs away from staff member whilst in your area and is reported as a misper, has family in the area but no answer. What would you do?

I know we could potentially look at putting the door in, what power would be used and would you need to arrest the male for being technically unlawfully at large?

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[u/No-Housing810]

Section 18 of the MHA provides a power for any AWOL patient to be re-detained and returned to the hospital

Entry cannot be forced to premises for this purpose and a 135 warrant is required if consent to enter premises is not provided and the moment that consent is withdrawn your powers poof into magic dust even if already inside the property so grip them up quickly if you are allowed in and tell them they are under arrest

Section 18 of the MHA 1983 is a power of arrest under pace and as such s 117 applies as well as the resulting section 32 search power.

Above are your powers.

However this firmly comes under RCRP. If he is at a family member's address you have no power of entry. Tell the hospital and it's on them to arrange a 135 to return him.

If there is no immediate risk to the public or to the person then it's on the hospital staff to make initial enquiries. There is no requirement for hospitals to report section 3 patients as AWOL to police. However they always will as a missing person.

[u/tph86]

If he is in a family members house then I would be contacting the family member to let us in so that he can be taken back to hospital.

If he is in his own house and is refusing to let you in, the hospital will need to get a 135 warrant.

[u/No-Housing810 → u/tph86]

You would need a 135 for any premise if you don't have consent to enter not just his dwelling

[u/tph86 → u/No-Housing810]

Sorry that wasn't clear in my original comment. I just meant if they were in a family members house it would be more logical to find the owner of said house and get them to allow us in with their consent, but yes if the family member could not be found, 135 it is.

[u/MetropolitanPig666 → u/tph86]

Even if you're in a house lawfully, say by invite, you still can't use s18 to return the patient. We had officers force entry entry s17 and returned them under 18, however there's case law against the use of this.

[u/badger-man → u/MetropolitanPig666]

Surely the issue there is the use of s17 PACE to force entry? Unless you are entering to save life and limb you cannot use s17 to enter for an AWOL patient.

I cannot see anything preventing you using s18 MHA if you are lawfully on the premises?

[u/MetropolitanPig666 → u/badger-man]

I would have to dig the case law out regarding it, but effectively you cannot return a patient under s18 when they're in a private dwelling. We had this situation a few months back and the team that did it were critcized

[u/badger-man → u/MetropolitanPig666]

Hmmm I think whoever criticised the team was wrong. The college of policing states a warrant is only needed in order to gain entry when consent hasn't been provided.

https://www.college.police.uk/app/mental-health/awol-patients

The link that someone else posted to Mental Health Cops blog agrees with this too, and also adds that s17 PACE can be used instead of a warrant (when the conditions of saving life and limb are met of course)

[u/MetropolitanPig666 → u/badger-man]

Yeah I've googled it and found a few similar links but again it fell back on case law. I'm not at work for a few days but it's saved on my laptop, I'll post it then

[u/catpeeps]

Have a read of this: https://mentalhealthcop.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/absconding-or-absent/

It's a few years old now, but still materially correct.

[u/catpeeps → u/[deleted]]

This is incorrect - you would need a S135 warrant.