Does anyone know about the rules for CTO and international travel. I know patients cant change residence but if patients decide to go for a short holiday outside EU , what should the RC do?
Unless the risk is sufficient to justify recalling the patient to hospital, there’s nothing the RC can do (apart from talking to the patient about it and explaining their concerns).
The same is true, incidentally, if a patient wants to move home.
Thanks Richard. There is no sufficient grounds for recall but do you know what the Mental health Act actually say? Is it a breach? .
There’s nothing in the Act which says someone is not allowed to travel abroad.
It could, in theory, be a condition written into a particular patient’s CTO if their RC thought it necessary. But even if it were, there is no sanction for breaching a condition per se. If the RC thought it was important enough to make it a specific condition, they might decide that the patient intending to breach it creates a risk great enough to justify recall - but that all depends on the particular facts at the time.
Hi here,
I think there needs to be consideration of two key clinical aspects, 1) the rehabilitative/habilitative nature of holidays which might in some cases see RC’s promoting holidays including those abroad and 2) predictive risk and positive risk taking, what risk is there of relapse whilst abroad, how will the person manage their risks whilst away, will the distance from the clinical team create significant risks or can the person manage or mitigate those risks with whoever they are going on holiday with. Understanding their plans for whilst they are away particularly in relation to relapse indicators becomes important.
These clinical matters might then change the current views of risk and whether recall is necessary and if all is supportive may in fact change the views on the necessity of CTO in the longer term.
From a legal point of view, the MHA does not apply once the person leaves the jurisdiction but equally is not ended/discharged, the RC needs to consider how that also features within the predictive risk judgement.