Research Projects

The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003: Developing a Research Programme to Investigate its Introduction and Impact

Researchers

Rosemary Rushmer, CPPM, Department of Management, University of St Andrews
(PI contact at: rkr@st-andrews.ac.uk)

Background

The Mental Health Act (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (the MHA2003) is the most important change in mental health legislation in Scotland for more the forty years. It will introduce many new provisions as it becomes law in April 2005, these include: the introduction of a new decision-making body regarding the imposition of compulsory treatment orders (the mental health tribunal); greater protection for service users and their carers (named person, advance statements, community treatment orders, care plans). During the journey of the Act through Parliament the work of the Millan Committee found a dearth of robust evidence into the effectiveness of mental health law and mental health service provision. To address this the Scottish Executive have dedicated funds to a research programme to rectify some of the gaps in the evidence-base.

Aims of the Study

This work will:
" Identify the rationale behind the priorities for and development of the research programme into the MHA2003.
" Document the process of bringing a policy-serving, specifically designed, research programme into being, from first steps.

Methods

Documentary methods using data inputted from policy-makers and government social researchers within the Scottish Executive trace and record the journey and resulting format of the research programme as it unfolds. The interface between civil servants in commissioning identified projects for priority data collection and external researchers contributing their expertise in delivering a robust evidence base will be recorded through the project management process.

Funding

This work is funded through a secondment to the Scottish Executive Health Department: Analytical Services Division Mental Health Research Team to develop and project manager the research programme into the MHA2003