Australian Capital Territory Repealed Acts

This legislation has been repealed.

MENTAL HEALTH ACT 1983 (REPEALED) - SECT 21

        (a)     a person is suffering from mental dysfunction;

        (b)     the condition of the person gives rise to an immediate and substantial risk of actual bodily harm to the person or to another person; and

        (c)     the person will not accept treatment which the medical practitioner or Mental Health Officer reasonably believes necessary to avert that risk,

the medical practitioner or Mental Health Officer may take the person to a mental health facility conducted by the Territory and, for that purpose, may use such force and assistance as he considers necessary.

(2) Where a police officer has reasonable grounds for believing that—

        (a)     a person is suffering from mental dysfunction; and

        (b)     the condition of the person gives rise to an immediate and substantial risk of actual bodily harm to the person or to another person,

the police officer shall take the person to a mental health facility conducted by the Territory and, for that purpose, may use such force and assistance as he considers necessary.

(3) A police officer, a medical practitioner or an authorized Mental Health Officer may, for the purposes of taking a person to a mental health facility conducted by the Territory in pursuance of subsection (1) or (2), enter any premises by force, if necessary, and with such assistance as he thinks necessary, if there are reasonable grounds for believing that the person is at those premises.

(4) Where a person is taken to a mental health facility conducted by the Territory under subsection (1) or (2), the Director shall, subject to this Part, detain the person at that facility and while the person is so detained—

        (a)     may keep the person in such custody at that facility as the Director thinks appropriate in the circumstances;

        (b)     may subject the person to such restraint as is reasonable and necessary to prevent the person from doing harm to himself or to any other person;

        (c)     shall cause a medical practitioner to conduct a physical and psychiatric examination of the person as soon as practicable; and

        (d)     may cause to be administered to the person such treatment (if any) as is necessary to avert any immediate and substantial risk of the person doing harm to himself or to any other person.

(5) A police officer, a medical practitioner or an authorized Mental Health Officer who takes a person to a mental health facility conducted by the Territory in pursuance of subsection (1) or (2) shall prepare a statement in writing setting out the action taken by him in pursuance of that subsection and containing details of—

        (a)     the name and address (if known) of the person;

        (b)     the date and time when the person was so taken to the facility;

        (c)     the reasons why the police officer, medical practitioner or Mental Health Officer took the action; and

        (d)     the extent (if any) to which force or assistance was used in entering any premises or in taking the person to the facility;

and shall give the statement to the Director as soon as practicable after the person is so taken to the facility.

(6) Where a person is detained under subsection (4), the Director shall—

        (a)     prepare and maintain a record of the details of any action taken under subsection (4) in relation to that person;

        (b)     cause a written statement to be given to the person and to his prescribed representative setting out the powers and duties of the Director in relation to persons who are so detained and of the right of the person and his prescribed representative to apply to the Magistrates Court for release from that detention; and

        (c)     where, in the opinion of the Director, the person or his prescribed representative is unable to understand the written statement given to him in pursuance of paragraph (b)—take all reasonable steps to ensure that an oral explanation is given to the person or to his prescribed representative, as the case requires, of the contents of the statement.

(7) In this section, “authorized Mental Health Officer” means a Mental Health Officer who is authorized in writing by the Director for the purposes of this section.

Appointment of prescribed representative