Guardianship – a case for wider use

Abstract

Few psychiatrists have had much experience of guardianship (Section 7, Mental Health Act, 1983). The two cases described have been successful and suggest wider use of this section. It seems apposite in view of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' advice on discharge of patients from hospital, and discussion on a community treatment order; the continuing drive to community care, as codified in the ‘Care Programme Approach’; and the need in the future to treat increasingly disturbed individuals in the community as envisaged in the Reed report.