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Trends in the use of civil compulsory treatment

 

Detentions under civil procedures in Scotland, 2000-10

 

Fig-17

 

Our interest in this

We look at how the main civil compulsory orders in Scotland have been used over time. Over the years, we found an increasing use of long-term compulsory treatment. This was similar to other western European countries. This trend has not continued under the 2003 Act. Emergency detention has been falling, accompanied by an initial rise in short-term detention. We wanted to see whether these trends continued

What we found

Main findings are:

  • The use of emergency detention continues to fall although mostly for people in the community (see table 4). We are encouraged by this although we have suggested changes to the Act that could reduce emergency detention further, e.g. by amending the use of nurse's power to detain for short periods or by shortening the period of emergency detention, especially where the MHO has not been able to consent.
  • Short-term detention rates have gone up since the 2003 Act was introduced (midway through 2005-06). They are slightly higher this year than last year. We will watch to see if there are further rises. A rise in these orders was a consequence of making this route the usual one into compulsory treatment. We continue to remind psychiatrists to review these orders frequently, especially during the first few days.
  • The number of new long-term detention orders has fallen since the 2003 Act came into force. It seems to be around 1100 new orders each year on average and has shown slight fluctuation since 2006-7 but no overall change.

The total number of people on CTOs has changed little over the last year.

These figures need to be studied along with our figures on the total number of orders in existence.