I’m writing this post in hope that you can gain some understanding about what being sectioned is, whether you have experienced it yourself, or you know someone who has gone through this experience. Let’s begin with the definition; the dictionary defines being sectioned as ‘having been committed compulsorily to a psychiatric hospital in accordance with a section of a mental health act.’ The word compulsorily connotes that something is ‘required by law or a rule; obligatory’.
Therefore being section is interlinked with the Mental Health Act 1983. This law permits someone to be sectioned if they are assessed and they have been considered as having a somewhat ‘severe’ mental illness. But it’s not that simple.
According to Mind, there are several factors that would be taken into consideration before detaining someone in a Mental Health Hospital. For example, ‘if they’re worried about your safety or the safety of others.’ ‘Or if the doctors think you need to be assessed and treated in hospital’, or if ‘they think your illness will get worse’. But who determines this life-altering decision? When I look back, there were several people involved in the process leading up to my section, the psychiatrist; the mental health nurse, the care coordinator and the doctors.
There are many questions I ask myself now. What if I knew then that there were other ways of getting treatment that doesn’t involve being hospitalised or sectioned. I wonder whether I would have regained my right mind? If I had known I had the right to express my views in my assessment leading up to my section, would I have remained so silent in my meeting? It is my hope that you research and find out your rights if you have gone through, or are going through this type of situation.
‘If you are sectioned, you can be kept in hospital, stopped from leaving the ward and given treatment for your mental health problems, possibly without your consent.’
Mind
Know your rights
The lack of consent is what probably frustrated me the most whilst being sectioned. Yet many of us don’t realise that we have human rights despite being sectioned. The first being, getting copies of your paperwork, I remember getting this, but I don’t remember signing it even though it had my signature on it as plain as day. The next was telephone access; I was constantly calling my parents and siblings, and lastly the right to appeal your section through a solicitor. I recall doing this and getting a letter from a solicitor. The one thing I’ve only recently heard about is getting an advocate, I don’t recall if I had one or not at that time when I was unwell, but then again I don’t really recall many titles because I came across dozens of people whilst being in the mental health ward.
This is not the end
Sometimes I wonder if I had done things differently; if I had been much calmer and had not been constantly fighting the people who were trying to help me. Would I have been sectioned? Yet in the back of my mind, I realise that this period provided me with the time, to regain my mental consciousness. There were moments when I thought (I can’t take one more thing), as they held me down and jabbed me with a needle to calm me down. There were many lonely moments especially when being sectioned over the Christmas period, or missing my birthday because I was still hospitalised. But there were moments of realisation, and encounters with other people who have altered my life in a sense; the occupational therapist; the chaplain; the psychiatric nurse, these encounters kept me connected to the everyday moments of life.
I would never go as far as to say; I’m glad this all happened. But I would say, I’m glad I found myself, I’m glad I have empathy and compassion for those in similar or worse situations.
If it had been left up to me, I wouldn’t have been able to accept that I needed to go to the hospital at the time, or that I needed to be assessed. So I’m grateful to the Mental Health Act to a certain degree; I’m grateful to be alive and well today.
Thank you for supporting my blog this year. This is the last post of the year. Thank you for reading and enjoy the rest of your night!
LookafterU4me 