Mental health section questions

[NewYoiker]

If someone is sectioned under the mental health act and they had previously booked hospital appointments for something completely unrelated can you still go? I'm fairly certain I'm going to be sectioned tomorrow but I really need to attend a cancer biopsy appointment next week. Will they let me go? Or will I have to miss it?

The nurses will try very hard to get you there. If someone is on a section then they need to be prescribed Section 17 leave by the responsible clinician to leave the hospital, this might be accompanied by a nurse. The only reason this wouldn't happen would be if the staff felt it would be too unsafe to attend the appointment (for example, if they had strong reasons to think someone would run away and hurt themselves) and in that case the nurses will contact the hospital doing the biopsy and ask for an alternative appointment.

It's up to the mental hospital. In my experience a week after sectioning they're unlikely to give leave for such a reason, and mental health staff in general ignore and dismiss any physical health problems patients have, it's a massive battle getting even blatantly obvious problems looked at.

If you're in a position to post this now, I'd be surprised if you're sectioned tomorrow. It's not usually done lightly.

OP - in my experience, yes, you will still have the appointment honoured (accompanied of course)

Thanks. I'm worried they're going to section me as I keep having suicidal thoughts and the steroids I had recently gave me psychosis. But my mum thinks that because I can articulate that I'm worried I'll be sectioned I won't be as I clearly have the ability to understand that I might be? But I feel so lost and shitty I just know I'll cry at the gp tomorrow and I have to tell them how I feel as that's part of me and DH's deal. He found me and the note I wrote which hurt him beyond belief so we're going to go private because the wait for nhs is about 22 weeks but i need a referral from the gp to the private psychiatrist.

I'm just so worried

If you fit the criteria for sectioning but are willing to be voluntarily admitted, you won't be sectioned

Oh fuck I tried to change names and it's failed ok so if I go in as a voluntary patient I can leave for the appointment?

Not necessarily, if you go in voluntarily then try to leave against advice you'll end up sectioned.
You certainly don't sound sectionable at the moment though, try not to catastrophise.

You have insight, and you don't intend acting on the suicidal thoughts presumably as you're planning your appointment. You were having psychotic symptoms but are no longer. Is that right? Why do you think you'll be sectioned? It's a common fear among people who may be new to mental health issues. In reality very ill desperate people are left with little care at all. I'm just using my experience to try to help. If you tell the GP you're very low and suicidal but don't have any intent to act on the thoughts, they will probably just offer antidepressants and a referral to counselling or CBT. What do you want to happen?

Don't worry about the name change fail, mental health issues are nothing to be ashamed of.

I just want to feel safe. At the moment if anything remotely bad happens or DH is in a mood because he has a bad day I immediately feel like he'd be better off without me, I'd be better off dead etc. I got put on steroids for IBD and I was convinced that there was a man in the house trying to break into the spare room and I barricaded myself in there moved furniture etc. It took a lot of persuading to convince me there was no one there. Since then I can't really sleep and I feel so low and anxious. They took me off sertraline as the gp didn't think I was absorbing it properly but wanted to see if a week of diazepam would help things. But if anything I feel worse. I have intrusive thoughts and I keep seeing things out of the corner of my eye but when I look again there's nothing there. I just feel very vulnerable and weird

Even if you do, they have a duty of care to your physical and mental wellbeing. And something like an appointment that serious, even if they have to escort you there least you have some company as I can imagine it's a stressful time. You only need to be sectioned though if you're a danger to yourself or society. So just think very hard about this, because you do have rights. Its better you ask for support in the community, home support etc as well. Being sectioned will not help, it's there for people who are seriously not well enough to make decisions for themselves to keep themselves safe etc. Have a think about what help you want, whether its medication, support in the community, counselling etc. Its not always necessary to section someone. X

Op I have been in similar situation to you. I sounds like you may get a referral to your local cmht. Or you could be sectioned. Have you locked yourself in a room like that before. Have you hurt anyone/yourself or used violent language. Are you eating ok? Do you have any sleep? You need to start to eat a healthy diet and have a good night's sleep. You need to do what you can for yourself as getting sectioned is horrific and would not recommend. Sorry you are going through this.

@Thatagain no I'm not sleeping, no I've never had any issues at all apart from some anxiety before I had the episode of psychosis that was horrific. I rang my ibd nurse and she asked to see me ASAP and they decided it was steroid induced psychosis but I'm worried that it might happen again? They've changed my steroids to a different kind and only for a week. I'm going to ask for help not to be sectioned. I don't want to be sectioned, I just need help and j need whatever they think is best for me

I suffer from psychosis it's been diagnosed by a mhn and my gp. From what I can see is that your episode of phycosis is steroid induced then it unlikely you will be sectioned. You still need to sleep and eat well as until the steroids are out of your system. I started of with undiagnosed anxiety for years. You need that looking at also. Good luck OP

Sadly psychosis is not enough to get you admitted to hospital, especially if you have awareness which you clearly do as you are posting online about your condition. No need to panic - ask for support and remember the nhs is strapped for cash unless you're going to literally kill yourself or someone else that day you're going nowhere!

I think it is really unlikely that you will be sectioned - for a start, you are articulate and seem to have a good insight into what's going on (I have been told by my psychiatrist that it would be almost impossible to section me for the same reasons). Secondly, a GP can't section you so please don't go into the appointment think that's what will happen. It is quite a high bar to be sectioned especially if you are proactively seeking help. I speak as someone who has told my psychiatrist suicidal plans in some detail and recently told him that I wasn't going to see him anymore because I didn't think he was real. It also sounds like you have a supportive DH which helps a lot. I'm sorry you're feeling like this though and I do hope you can get the help you need. Wishing you all the best

About 18 months ago I was in a very similar position to you, although with a different health condition. I was voluntarily admitted to the mental health unit, and one of the staff from the mental health unit accompanied me to the pre-existing physical condition appointment. At this point an HCA from the main hospital department escorted me through the whole thing, and at the end I was handed back to a colleague from the mental health team. Every unit is slightly different, though.

Ask for the support you need; I was lucky enough to get very good assistance from the mental health team, which continues, though much less frequently now, from a truly excellent CPN (after a couple of social workers who unfortunately weren't a good fit to help me). And 18 months later, my life is so much brighter. It did take them a little while to get my meds right for me, but once they did, they worked really well.

Sending you good thoughts. Yes, the NHS is strapped for cash, but it is still, mainly, on the frontline in particular, staffed by kind, helpful people who genuinely want to assist you and see you get better.

Leave for hospital appointments is normally prescribed within the section 17, conditions might be escorted by 1 or 2 staff though depending upon risk. The threshold for sectioning is quite high, along with bed crisis they may offer home based treatment.

I hope that your GP sees the urgency of your situation and can get you seen quickly by the mental health team.

I imagine e sudden withdrawal of sertraline has a great deal to do with your symptoms 💐

Phycosis is a reason to be sectioned. You also need a gp to confirm that you should be sectioned maybe the police also. With phycosis you know exactly what is going on around you also here thing's which may not be said you are at your most functionality when you feel like you could run a marathon or to the most extreme when you could knock a house down. People who have had phycosis episodes know that their brain is working overtime with out a break to eat or rest. You feel very good and it can be hard to here that you are not well. That is just an example of what it's like. Phycosis is where your brain just doesn't stop and your body just doesn't stop. You also have strong erges to end your life as that sometimes feels like the only solution.

Thatagain different people experience psychosis differently (some of what you describe is manic symptoms rather than psychosis though).

To be place on a section 2 or 3 (the most common sections) you need an AMHP (a specialist type of social worker) and either 2 section 12 approved psychiatrists, or one section 12 approved psychiatrist and another psychiatrist who has known the patient for a period of time (a GP often acts in this role). The police only get involved in emergency sections 135 and 136 in order to tale people to a place of safety for a full assessment by the psychiatrists.

Psychosis alone is not a reason to section someone. Lots of people manage psychosis in the community successfully. For a section to be used there must be a danger to either the patient or someone else that cannot be managed in another way. If a patient agrees to come into hospital informally it is difficult to argue that a section needs to be used (unless the patient lacks capacity to make that decision).