Dr. Lorcan Martin:

It would be more frequent than that. It would be a minimum of two to three times a week. By definition, these are a psychiatrist's most seriously ill patients and the ones who will be monitored most closely. A consultant psychiatrist would see those patients regularly and reassess their capacities, specifically their capacity to remain in hospital as a voluntary patient, because many people when treated will be able to make a decision. They may think they are not very well at the moment and should stay in hospital. In other cases, the consultant psychiatrist may decide, in consultation with a patient and his or her family, that while the patient is not well at the moment, he or she could be managed in the community with supports. There are other people who do not regain that level of capacity early in the process and may need to remain in involuntary detention for a longer period and go through a tribunal and so on.

Capacity is fluid, as is the decision to keep somebody in hospital as an involuntary patient. People sometimes have the notion that if a patient is signed in with an initial admission order for three weeks, that person will automatically be in hospital for three weeks. That is not the case. The bulk of patients I have received as involuntary patients go home before they ever reach a tribunal or they become voluntary patients and choose to stay. It is an important distinction. Not everyone who comes in on involuntary forms is kept. Not everyone who comes in on involuntary forms remains involuntarily for the duration of the admission order.