What Form A is for
Section 18 of The Mental Health Services Act lets a person be conveyed to a physician with admitting privileges for a psychiatric examination when they refuse to be examined. The examining physician or prescribed health professional must believe the person has a mental disorder and needs a psychiatric examination to decide whether they should be admitted under section 24. A properly completed certificate is enough authority for anyone to apprehend the person and convey them immediately to where the examination will happen.
Form A is often confused with Form G. Form A gets the person to a psychiatric examination. Form G is the certificate for compulsory admission, and two of them are normally needed.
Who completes it
The physician or prescribed health professional who personally examined the person completes the whole form, separately from any other practitioner. A subscribing witness signs alongside you. There’s no patient part.
How to fill in the certificate
Your details and the examination
Give your full name and qualifications, where you live and practise, and the date of your examination. Then give the person’s full name and residence. The Act requires the certificate to state that you examined the person personally and to show the examination date, so leave neither out.
The grounds
Most of the certificate rests here. The Act requires you to state the facts on which you formed your opinion of the mental disorder. Record what you observed at the examination, such as behaviour, speech, thought content and any statements about harm. Add what others told you after due inquiry and say who told you. A diagnosis or the word “psychotic” on its own doesn’t show grounds.
Arrangements with the admitting physician
Name the physician with admitting privileges who has agreed to examine the person as an out-patient. The Act allows conveyance only once those arrangements are made, so call ahead before you sign.
Signatures
Date and sign in front of your witness, who signs on the line beside yours. The form’s distribution line sends copies to the physician with admitting privileges and to the official representative.
Common reasons it’s challenged
- Grounds that give a diagnosis or label without the observed facts behind it.
- No physician with admitting privileges named, or no arrangement in place before conveyance.
- No witness signature.
- The person conveyed more than seven days after your examination.
- The examination date, or the statement that you examined the person yourself, missing.
Submitting and who pays
Form A isn’t sent to an agency. It travels with the person to the physician with admitting privileges, who conducts the examination, and a copy goes to the official representative. The form carries no fee line. Bill your examination as you normally would.