Mental Health and Substance Misuse
A person should only be discharged from the aftercare provisions of Section 117 if the responsible multi-disciplinary team (MDT) and the Quality Assurance Mental Health Funding Panel or CLDS/ILDP Quality Assurance Panel are satisfied that the person is now equipped to manage life outside hospital and services are not needed to prevent readmission for treatment of a mental disorder.
If the MDT consider that a person no longer requires Section 117 aftercare, a representative from the MDT will present the recommendation and reasoning to the Mental Health Quality Assurance Panel or the CLDS/ILDP Quality Assurance Panel, who will make the final decision regarding discharge. The panel will require the completed Section 117 form accompanied by the Conversation 3 form clearly detailing if the person’s needs have been met or not. All documents must be emailed to the Term Clerks at [email protected] within one month of the Section 117 planning meeting having taken place.
If the MDT do not agree on discharge both the responsible clinician and practitioner should attend the appropriate panel to present both opinions and clinical views.
Panel members can also request a discharge from Section 117 aftercare.
If the panel cannot reach a decision this should be escalated to Director level of both Adult Social Care and the Integrated Care Board.
When a person is discharged from Section 117 aftercare this will be recorded on a Discharge From Section 117 Aftercare Form.
The discharge form should contain:
• a full explanation of how the decision was reached
• the plans to provide any other care outside of Section 117 and
• the names of the decision makers involved in this process.
This information will be uploaded on Mosaic as well as RIO and shared with any future care providers. The intention for all people is to improve mental health and recovery.
The person will be notified of the decision using the confirmation of discharge pro forma letter. A copy of a pro forma letter is available on page 25 of the Section 117 Aftercare policy, appendix 2. The policy is located in the green box at the top of this page in the Practice Guide.
The person and carer/s (where the person consents) will be consulted, but cannot veto decisions, which rest with Health and Adult Social Care professionals.
If a person is discharged from Section 117 and readmitted under qualifying provisions they would recommence entitlement to Section 117 aftercare when they are discharged from hospital.