Alex RKFor years, the debate about the interface between the MHA and the MCA (as to which, see further my shedinar here) and where it should be drawn in future has been bedevilled by the lack of actual data about how it works in practice, and how practitioners (of different backgrounds) understand it. The King’s Fund, in a really important piece of research commissioned by the DHSC, has published a report: Understanding clinical decision-making at the interface of the Mental Health Act (1983) and the Mental Capacity Act (2005): drawing upon survey and qualitative interviews, the research captured data from more than 600 health professionals, including approved mental health professionals, section 12 doctors, approved clinicians, and best interests assessors among others. A blog by the report’s author – a Tale of Two Acts – can be found here, and the underlying report here.
