Does an IMHA require a patient’s consent to get the following information:
Name
DOB
Address, preferably home but can be hospital
Date of admission to hospital
Section
Section due date
from the ward the patient is on?
Currently, the organisation newly commissioned to provide independent mental heath advocacy is requiring for patients to access advocacy support that the IMHAs fill out a referral form wuth the above data/information which they are getting from the ward because although patients want help from the IMHA they are unable or/and unwilling to give these data but are clear they want and need IMHA support.
IMHAs are therefore being directed to get these data from the ward but this is without the knowledge/consent/understanding of the patients. However if the patients dont give their consent(primarily for reasons it’s not what they want to talk about and spend any time on as their focus is what they’re going through, because they don’t understand or acceot the relevance about the reequirement re the data and referral process, because it breaches trust or causes mistrust, because they don’t want advocacy to feel like their experience with the mental health system where it is about data and bureaucracy and they get no choice about it) this will mean they cannot have IMHA access and support which they really want abd need, whereby their rights are not protected and so on.
What is the situation legalky regarding this and what is the situation in terms of code of practice and advocacy practice?
please and if it requires the consemt of the patient etc, many thanks
I am also an IMHA and there is seemingly a lack of understanding about this role and information and relationship building is difficult but essential to effectively perform the role as required, not least to access the details you need from the ward directly.
I have found that the position of full knowledge of our role and rights is best served by comprehensive training. Choosing a course that will equip IMHA’s with the knowledge that enables a successful challenge as needed, is a good pathway. Might I suggest Peter Edwards Law training and I have absolutely no financial or other interest with this firm, I just share as they were the best (over many years) that I have attended and are helpful source after the courses are complete. Judith
Qualifying patients have a statutory right to IMHA and can’t be denied it on the basis of not wanting to give this information. Any advocacy provider denying them it would therefore be breaching their rights. But you do need to know whether the person is a qualifying patient, obviously.
Aside from that, see Chapter 10 of the MHA Code of Practice for confidentiality and information sharing.
Thanks, Heidi, what evidence or reference, is there for this? Because although the Mental Health Act says statutory right to IMHA for qualifying patients, it does not require or refer to whether this process is hard or easy for these patients or has to suit their needs. These data requirements the organisation are insisting upon - leading patients wanting advocacy but unable to have it because they 'won’t ’ give their data, have been as I understand required by the comissioners of (Statutory) advocacy. They will all argue, as I understand, that patients are being given their statutory right of access to advocacy but choosing not to take it up by ‘choosing’ not to give consent about these data..
I would be surprised if that were the case. I can only suggest you ask the advocacy provider or the commissioners to explain what they would base such a refusal on. The basis for my view is the statutory entitlement. Sorry I can’t clarify further.
It depends on what ‘consent’ means. If it means agreement or assent - then it’s possible.
If consent means MCA 2005 consent (capacity + free willing agreemnt) then potentially a full MCA 2005 assessment may need to be completed. The latter is what has been going on for people to be referred even to forensic psychiatry services(not in all services obviously). So no MCA 2005 ‘consent’ means they are not referred - and free to do whatever the like with weapons and stuff.
These days ‘everybody’ is invoking consent for ‘everything’ under the sun. Soon full MCA 2005 assessments may be completed for knocking on the door of a patient at home, before entering.
Some people think obviously, that I’m exaggerating or being hyperbolic. Well, some people don’t know what’s going on out there. I know what’s going on out there. But as I am in the minority, I’ll be wrong.
I think the short (if not necessarily helpful) answer is that IMHAs do NOT have a right to that sort of information without the patient’s consent (if the patient has capacity to give it).
As Claire says, IMHAs do have a statutory right to look at the patient’s records. But it is subject to the patient’s consent - see section 130B of the MHA (extract below)
(3) for the purpose of providing help to a patient in accordance with the arrangements, an independent mental health advocate may—
(a) visit and interview the patient in private;
(b) visit and interview any person who is professionally concerned with his medical treatment;
(c) require the production of and inspect any records relating to his detention or treatment in any hospital or registered establishment or to any after-care services provided for him under section 117 above;
(d) require the production of and inspect any records of, or held by, a local social services authority which relate to him.
(4) But an independent mental health advocate is not entitled to the production of, or to inspect, records in reliance on subsection (3)(c) or (d) above unless—
(a) in a case where the patient has capacity or is competent to consent, he does consent; or
(b) in any other case, the production or inspection would not conflict with a decision made by a donee or deputy or the Court of Protection and the person holding the records, having regard to such matters as may be prescribed in regulations under section 130A above, considers that—
(i) the records may be relevant to the help to be provided by the advocate; and
Thanks Richard! I kept meaning to come back to this! So in the case where someone isn’t able to understand or focus on why consent might be needed, the issue of getting their consent doesn’t apply and access is therefore dependent on the other sections mentioned. Is the information appropriate and relevant to the role of the IMCA? Claire
Claire - yes. Unless the patient has a donee of lasting power of attorney or a court appointed deputy who objects, an IMHA can access an incapacitous patient’s records as long as the record holder thinks the records might be relevant to the IMHA’s support for the patient and (if so) it is appropriate for the IMHA to see them. Hard to imagine a situation where the answers to those questions would be “no” for the kind of info the original poster listed.