Has anyone been sectioned/had a family member sectioned

[dabitaLJ]

Has anyone been sectioned against their will, or had to do this with a mentally ill family member?

The person will absolutely refuse to go. They will fight. How are they then kept in hospital if they want to leave?

If you have any experience of this id be grateful if you would talk me through the process.

The threshold for being detained under section 2 of the mental health act is very high. If two doctors and an AMHP detain them then they have no choice. The police will take them if necessary. What do you want to know exactly?

I used to be a mental health nurse
Basically staff try to use the least restrictive methods of stopping people from leaving hospital ,talking to them ,persuading them to stay,if thsts not possible than somebody csn be physically restrained from leaving hospital
Your family member,will get a leaflet explaining their rights under the section and details of how to appeal
Somerimes the police will accompany healthcare professionals in bringing a patient into hospital to ensure safety

I was, about 30 years ago.
I tried to leave and was physically restrained.
They do what they have to do.

My family member would have been sectioned but after they were taken to hospital by the police, the staff convinced them to voluntarily admit themselves for 28 days. If they hadn't agreed they would have been sectioned.

They were taken to hospital by police after being picked up for doing something that was a danger to themselves

The police will be called to bring them in if necessary.
Psych wards are quite hard to abscond from, a series of locked doors, high walls etc. They may be medicated to reduce their exit seeking behaviour, under physical restraint if necessary.

There is appropriate security in a MH unit, so they will not be able to leave. If necessary, there will be a staff member to watch them closely 24/7.

A family member yes. GP and a Psychiatrist came to house and sat down with him to assess. Tried to convince him to go along to hospital. Ambulance crew were called. He decided to leave house and go walking. Me and ambulance crew member went in my car to drive around looking for him. He returned home of own volition. Police were at house when we got back and convinced him to go in ambulance. All took a v long time. He was not behaving at all violently that day so police didn't touch him just persuaded him to go in ambulance.
He was taken to secure mental health unit within a hospital for full assessment. You can't just leave because it's fully secured, double sets of locked doors etc. He was then diagnosed then had to stay a year until they found a care home place for him. They kept renewing section until he left.

You can't really "get someone sectioned." The threshold is very high, and rightly so. If the police or ambulance thought they were a danger, they would bring them into hospital under the mental health act, and then they'd be fully assessed.

They'd bring them to a 136 suite which most A&E departments have.

They'd be assessed and detained or not.

Generally, it's when they're deemed to lack capacity, often during psychotic episodes.

But as has been said, the threshold is high and the clue is in the word 'detained' you don't have a choice but you're given options to appeal. They're secure wards. And Dols can also be implemented.

How is it high? Sorry no experience.

Yes I have been sectioned multiple times, last time in November. How can I help? Happy to talk in message if you prefer x

My cousin had a paranoid schizoid breakdown in 2008. She had PTSD from an absolutely horrendous experience, involving a horrible death of a friend, which she witnessed. She was living by herself, so we hadn't picked up that she was disappearing and going to various parts of the country, then coming home, then going off somewhere else, trying to throw murderers off her trail.

She'd run two successful businesses up until that point, with no prior indications of mental health problems, PTSD notwithstanding; the was in her early 40s.

She'd completely run out of money in Scotland and tried to get some in a bank, where the woman fortunately realised that something was very wrong. The Police came, very sympathetic, by all accounts. She was sectioned and in hospital for a month, then my dad went and drove her back to Bedfordshire. Within a couple of days, it was apparent that she had to be sectioned again, spending 3 months in hospital.

She does very well now, religiously taking her medicines.

I have worked on this kind of unit, while patients can be loud and aggressive, a lot of the time it can be very calm. The nurses on these units are worth their weight in gold, they are the experts. I would sit down with new patients alone and I'd be able to go through their medical information with them, take their blood and write up medications including as required sedation that the nurses would only use if required. The staff are also trained in control and restraint.

The whole setting is designed to accommodate people who could pose a risk to themself and others, all doors automatically lock and staff have cards to open them. They can't just walk out. Bathrooms have no sharp surfaces, anything dangerous like laces are removed.

When a new admission happens I would usually recommend one to one or two to one observations. Two to one means two highly trained staff members monitoring the person at all times.

Relatives can describe a sense of relief that they know the person is safe. Sectioning people under the mental health act is a frequency occurrence on a mental health unit, it's done to protect the person if they wouldn't voluntarily stay, so the vast majority don't want to be confined there and as you say will want to fight it. The staff are therefore very used to the situation you're describing.