Mental Health Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 62: 62: Schedule 6 , page 82, line 3, leave out ““1 year”” and insert ““6 months”” The noble Baroness said: I do not look like either my noble friend Lord Rix or my noble friend Lord Adebowale, but I understand that it is in order for any noble Lord to move an amendment that has been tabled. This amendment concerns authorisations under the Bournewood proposals. One of the problems that, I think, we all have with Bournewood is that we do not know how many people are going to be subject to them. We have had several guesstimates of how many there might be and the characteristics of patients that will make them subject to an authorisation. So far as I can see, it could be any number of people, anything from 3,000 or 4,000 up to 400,000 depending on the characteristics of the individuals concerned. It is possible that, on many occasions, there will be no need for the period of authorisation to last for longer than a few weeks. That is my hope—I see that the Minister is nodding, so I am hopeful that that is correct—but I can also see that there may well be a rather larger number than we think of people, particularly the elderly with dementia, who will need a longer authorisation period. Some elderly people regularly go ““sundowning””, which is what we call it when they wander around inside a residential care home trying to get out, looking to go home, back to work or, as one of my patients used to say, ““I’ve got to get out to get me husband’s tea””. They constantly rattle the door. It is a very common scenario. Many such people will be subject to the Bournewood provisions when people understand the benefits that they could have for their overall care and security for staff. So there could be occasions when the period will extend beyond a year and possibly go up to two or two and a half years. The amendment would offer the same kind of protection in terms of assessment and the period of authorisation as is provided under the treatment clauses in Section 3 of the Mental Health Act. It is to give an equivalent protection in the time period for an assessment before the renewal of an authorisation. I beg to move.