Dear Editor

As a former forensic psychiatric service user, from my perspective much of the Mental Health Act 1983 code of practice should be more clearly defined as too much scope and interpretation is left to hospitals. They currently deviate when compiling their policies, leading to incongruities. For example the code depicts ‘seclusion’ as, the ‘supervised confinement of patient alone in a room, which may be locked to protect others from harm’. What is not clear is what constitutes ‘supervised’, ‘alone’ and ‘room’.