Taking Stock

We shall be reflecting on the experience of the three recent upheavals in mental health and mental capacity law – the Mental Capacity Act 2005, most of which came into force on 1 October 2007, accompanied by a Code of Practice; the Mental Health Act 2007 amendments to the Mental Health Act 1983, most of which came into force on 3 November 2008, accompanied by its two Codes of Practice; and the Mental Health Act 2007 amendments to the Mental Capacity Act 2005, bringing in the so-called deprivation of liberty safeguards or DOLS, on 1 April this year, together with another Code of Practice. That is a huge amount of new law for us all to get to grips with. Things have changed a great deal since I first started teaching Mental Health Law to social workers and psychiatrists in this very City in 1971 – nearly 40 years ago