Acting Together visits
Our Mental Health Act Commissioners visit all places were people are detained under the Mental Health Act, and meet with them in private. This is part of our work monitoring the Mental Health Act and protecting the interests of people who are detained.
On these visits, commissioners also:
- examine statutory documents relating to detention;
- review the ward environment;
- speak to ward staff.
Some visits are carried out jointly by a Mental Health Act Commissioner and a user of mental health services. These are known as Acting Together visits.
People who work on Acting Together all have current or recent experience of being detained under the Mental Health Act, and are members of our Service User Reference Panel (SURP). Both the Commissioner and the service user member receive training to carry out these Visits, and they plan and carry out the visits together.
The aims of the visits are to:
- carry out Mental Health Act Visits with direct service user involvement;
- increase Commissioner awareness of mental health services from a service user perspective;
- develop ways of working in partnership with service users.
The visits are based on a typical Mental Health Act Visit. The Commissioner and service user will look round the ward together and talk to patients and staff. They will ask patients who are detained under the Mental Health Act on the ward if they would be willing to be interviewed in private. Any action points from the interview will be agreed with the patient and fed back to staff.
Although the Mental Health Act Commissioner may look at patient notes, the service user member will not do this. The visits are carried out jointly between service users and Commissioners, and the contributions made are of equal value. Acting Together seeks to put direct experience of using services at the heart of visiting activity.
