Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts

MENTAL HEALTH (TREATMENT AND CARE) ACT 1994 - SECT 44

    (1)     The person in charge of a mental health facility at which a person is detained under section 41 shall ensure that during the period of detention—

        (a)     any custody under which the person detained is kept; and

        (b)     any confinement or other restraint to which the person detained is subjected; and

        (c)     any treatment administered to the person detained;

is the minimum necessary to prevent any immediate and substantial risk of the person detained causing harm to himself or herself or to another person.

Note     Special provisions apply for the emergency administration of electroconvulsive therapy (see subdiv 7.2.4).

    (2)     Subsection (1) does not apply if a person has a mental illness for which, in the opinion of a psychiatrist, the most appropriate treatment is long acting medication.

    (3)     In determining whether to administer long acting medication, the psychiatrist shall take into account the likely deterioration in the person's condition within 3 days of his or her examination of the person.