Guardianship under the Mental Health Act 1983

Aims and Method To describe the extent and variation in the use of Guardianship nationally. The Directors of Social Services were asked to provide details about Guardianship cases on two separate occasions one year apart. Results There were 428 new Guardianship cases in 12 months. At the second enumeration, 73% of cases were within the mental illness category and 47% of these had serious mental illness. Clinical Implications There is much variation in the use of Guardianship. Further developments of this study will explore the reasons for this variation and will ascertain clinicians' views on Guardianship, supervised discharge and other community treatment orders.