Book review: Advising Clients with Mental Health Conditions

Edited by David Pickup

Reviewed by Sheree Green

The UK has seen decades of underfunding in community-based services, a pandemic and now a cost-of-living crisis as the backdrop to a wholesale review of mental health legislation, which began back in 2018, with no end yet in sight. We are told that 85 per cent of the membership of the Mental Health Lawyers Association would be prepared to strike to highlight concerns ‘about the poor remuneration for civil legal aid work’.[1]

All of the above makes this book an even more important read for those contemplating a career representing and supporting this client group. As editor David Pickup goes on to say, such advisors have a ‘genuine opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives at the times when they are in most need of support’. Further, the book will help those specialising in other areas of law whose clients have mental health conditions.

This title is a great introduction to a niche area of practice. Easy to read and practical from the outset, it explains the human rights context to the law while also providing, for example, guidance on how to effectively complain for one’s client when the statutory authorities fail them in their duties. Anyone looking to practice in this area of law will need the Law Society’s Mental Health Accreditation and a close working relationship with Richard Jones’s Mental Health Act Manual, now in its 25th edition. However, with that title now at over 1,000 pages, Pickup’s guide may be the right place to start, offering an insight into the role of the mental health practitioner and how they manage their relationships with the client, their family and friends, the professionals supporting them and, of course, representation at the tribunal.

The book addresses the social challenges that are common to everyone but are all the more difficult to navigate if one is also managing disability or mental illness; such challenges might include employment, money and debt, housing, family life or brushes with the criminal justice system. It also touches briefly on the complex interface between mental health and mental capacity law.

It concludes with a chapter that acknowledges that the legal profession can be a stressful vocation, and increasingly so for solicitors practising in legal aid.

Wales is not overlooked, with information on its separate Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales, the Mental Health Act 1983: Code of Practice and the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales Rules 2008.

At the heart of the guide is Chapter 7, focused on the Mental Health Act 1983, which covers the provisions on compulsory treatment and detention in hospital. These are the aspects that can dominate the day-to-day work of the mental health lawyer. Pickup ends this section by recognising the real need for updated law, asking: ‘Despite all the good intentions will the Government see mental health law reform as a priority or be able to afford the costs?’ He concludes that: ‘Time will tell’

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Price: GBP75

Publisher: The Law Society

ISBN: 978-1784461911