Mental Health Act 2007 guide by PMD Healthcare

The Mental Health Act 2007: A guide

★★★★★

DVD available from PMD Healthcare

This guide is professionally produced, reflecting the fact it was put together by highly qualified mental health lawyers and doctors. As a result it is very informative about the new Mental Health Act.

The DVD helped me when viewed with colleagues. It provoked discussion on how the act would be applied, particularly in relation to community treatment orders, which feel like the most important change for us, with the most consequences.

My main criticism, watching it as an approved mental health professional, is that it is very much focused on the actual make up of the act rather than how I will have to apply it in my approved mental health professional role. I imagine that a Mental Health Act administrator or a legal department might find it of more practical use.

The difficulty with a piece of work such as this is that by the time I viewed it the act was in place and nobody truly knows how it will work. This could make the DVD almost an historical document within six months of its release.

The truth is that most approved mental health professionals will learn more from doing a couple of assessments under the new act and feeding back to colleagues than a rack of DVDs such as this, however well it is done.

Peter Corser is a mental health social worker