Supervised discharge is anachronistic

EDITOR,—Some readers may be unaware that on 1 April an amendment to the 1983 Mental Health Act came into force. This gives to psychiatrists—known in legislative parlance as the responsible medical officer or, more alarmingly, the community responsible medical officer—new powers for the “supervisions” of mentally ill patients, termed supervised discharge. This act, however, confers no additional therapeutic powers for treating people with an illness. On the contrary, it gives powers that might …