This paper discusses the first evaluation to be undertaken of a volunteer Appropriate Adult scheme for mentally vulnerable adults. Southampton MIND was granted funding by the Mental Health Foundation to implement a volunteer Appropriate Adult scheme which began in April 1994 and lasted for two years. The Mental Health Foundation required an evaluation from an independent organization, the implications of which are examined here against the background of previous research conducted by the authors on the use of Appropriate Adult protection for mentally vulnerable adults in the police station. We show that a basic Appropriate Adult training programme has been devised and that there are people willing to take on this training and the onerous role for which it prepares them.
Details of a research study, funded by MENCAP, on the use of Appropriate Adults are given. A great deal of attention has been given recently to diverting the mentally disordered from the criminal justice system. This preliminary report discusses what happens to those who stay in the system--i.e. who are kept in police custody and eventually appear at court. Facilities are available under the Appropriate Adult Scheme for offenders seen to be mentally disordered or handicapped to have with them a 'responsible person' when they are interrogated by the police. The questions now posed are: does such a scheme work, and is the offender given protection under it?
While conducting a study on the nature and extent of compulsory admissions to mental hospitals within the four London regional health authorities, discrepancies and inaccuracies were revealed in many of those mental hospital in-patient statistics. The nature and extent of some of these are examined. It is suggested that the value of such statistics for government planning must be questioned as is their value for research. It is recommended that a centralised system of collecting and collating such data be introduced as a matter of priority and that such a system be operated by the Mental Health Act Commission.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.