Use of Force (Seni's Law)

Overview

The Mental Health Use of Force Act 2018 affects all hospitals that have mental health inpatients.

This Act is sometimes known as Seni’s Law and was passed after the sad death of a mental health patient who was restrained by police whilst in hospital.

Force was, and still is, allowed in mental health hospitals.

In practice, this means use of control and restraint, seclusion, and rapid tranquilisation using medication.

The aim of this Act is to reduce such practices to a minimum and ensure that their use is monitored and recorded at all times.

What is meant by ‘force’?

Many patients in hospital have consented to admission because of their mental health difficulties. Others are in hospital under a section of the Mental Health Act, which means that they have not consented.

Sometimes, patients in either of these groups, due to their mental health condition, become disturbed and may be a risk to themselves or to other patients and staff.

In these situations it may become necessary to use methods of management such as:

• control and restraint whereby highly trained staff use minimal hands on restraint to prevent a patient being a risk to themselves or others
• seclusion whereby a patient is placed in a room away from other patients for a short period of time to prevent risk to others
• rapid tranquilisation whereby fast-acting medication is given to the patient in order to have a calming effect and reduce risk

Resources

You can learn more about the Use of Force by reading our leaflet.