Moving from a section 3 to voluntary

[FluffyFluffy]

Hi, looking for advice from anyone who’s been through something similar.

My partner is on a mental health ward. He was under Section 3 but has been made voluntary because he says he’ll stay and take medication.

The issue is he’s still consistently saying he wants to die, and has said an upcoming hospital admission is a trigger.

He’s about to be transferred to a general hospital for major surgery, and I’m worried that as a voluntary patient he’ll just be treated as a standard patient there, with unclear mental health support.

He’s not currently able to live safely or independently, and I’m not able to care for him at home.

Has anyone experienced this—especially being taken off Section 3 before a hospital transfer? What support is actually in place, and how do you stop discharge defaulting to family?

Thx

I am not the best placed for this, but I think section 3 is the long term option. So I would want to make sure that shifting from a section 3 to a voluntary doesn't make them think they've discharged their duties for s117 aftercare. I don't know if that's a risk or not but the aftercare entitlement can be extremely important in terms of care funding and therefore the consistency and extent of ongoing care so it's definitely worth making sure on.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge about this specific experience will be asking to help shortly.

@Ineffable23thanks for the reply I am so worried about this. As well as securing the 117 aftercare I’m worried about whether this means when he goes to the other hospital for surgery he can just leave as not on s3. (He is very high risk)

The hospital will know he's a transfer from a mental health ward I would imagine.

Why does he want to die? There's usually a reason.

You could cite carer burnout wrt discharge but if your house is his home then that's his home. Does he want to come home? You can log your concerns if he's a danger to himself.

Is he seeing a psychologist in the hospital? S3 is for treatment so technically he should be. He could discuss the whole thing with psychologist.

Is he going back to the mental health ward after the hospital surgery? What's the actual plan. Can you attend ward round? There's many questions here... Very worrying for you of course. Do you have children?

Hi @Littleorangeflowershe is suffering from serious depression but also has some other medical problems ( hence the need for surgery) … they’ve reassured me today that he’ll have access to MH support whist having the surgery and that they’ll assess again after the surgery to see if he needs another admission due MH. Feeling slightly less worried now.