Western Australian Current Acts

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MENTAL HEALTH ACT 2014 - SECT 584

584 .         Protection from liability when detaining person with mental illness

        (1)         This section applies if —

            (a)         a person has lawful charge of a person who has, or is reasonably suspected of having, a mental illness while that person is at a particular place; and

            (b)         the person who has, or is reasonably suspected of having, a mental illness does not have the capacity to decide whether or not to withdraw himself or herself from that lawful charge.

        (2)         No civil or criminal liability is incurred because the person who has that lawful charge in good faith detains, or continues the detention of, the person who has, or is reasonably suspected of having, a mental illness in order to prevent that person from leaving the particular place.

        (3)         The protection given by subsection (2) does not apply if the person who has lawful charge of the person who has, or is reasonably suspected of having, a mental illness uses bodily restraint to prevent that person from leaving the particular place.

        (4)         For subsection (3), the bodily restraint of a person is the physical restraint or mechanical restraint, within the meaning of those terms in section 227(2) to (6), of the person.



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