There is, in my professional experience, a very distinct difference between restraining burglars or street robbers who have been arrested for offences and restraining patients who have been detained or re-detained under the Mental Health Act.  The concepts of resistance or aggression may be similar; the instinct of a police officer to contain the risks […]

There is a lot going on this month, in the NHS and in the news, affecting mental health issues and the overlap with criminal justice.  A whistle-stop tour follows! – NHS CHANGES This month there is a lot of business commencing that will change the way the mental health care is given – so a […]

“Diminished responsibility” is a partial defence in law, to charges of murder.  It is therefore something for the defence to raise, not for the prosecution to prove; and for it to be established, it must be shown on the balance of probabilities that the defendant “was suffering from such abnormality of mind (whether arising from […]