Dundee Mental Health Officer Service

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The Mental Health Officer (MHO) Team
Social Work Department
Floor 2
Dundee House
50 North Lindsay Street
Dundee, DD1 1NF
Tel: 01382 437621

Duty MHO Contact 01382 438300
Out of Hours Contact 01382 432270

The Mental Health Officer Team was established in November 2005 to provide the Local Authority's statutory responsibility under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 and Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.

Who we are:

The Team Manager who directs and manages the work of the service and who is also a Mental Health Officer.

The team consists of five Mental Health Officers who provide the statutory service for Dundee City Council prescribed under legislation including the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (The Act) and the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 (AWIA).

There are also Mental Health Officers working throughout the Social Work Department as Social Workers or Care Managers who take part in the duty rota system and respond to work under The Acts.

The service is supported by a full time Clerical Assistant.

What we do:

Mental Health Officers have a duty under The Act to consent to formal admissions to hospital and make applications for the same. They also provide reports for Welfare Guardianship applications under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and give advice in relation to legislation for adults at risk.

Duty Referral Process

A Mental Health Officer is always available from 8:45am to 5pm( Monday to Friday) to respond to requests (mainly by the medical profession) for assessments under Section 36 and Section 44 of The Act. The Out of Hours Service provides a similar service out with office hours.

Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000

The Mental Health Officer Service provides information and reports as required under the above Act.

Advice

The Mental Health Officers are available to provide advice, information and support to professionals working in mental health and other service areas in relation primarily to the following legislation:

Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000
The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007
The Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 where it interacts with mental health legislation.
They also provide information, advice and support to service users, carers, friends and family.

Training

Mental Health Officers provide training to undergraduates, social work staff and other professionals. Mentoring sessions on specific topics can be arranged for small groups, on an informal basis.

The team works with Children and Adults, spanning the whole age range.
The team have information on local solicitors with an interest in this area of work and useful contact numbers for service users and carers - this is available on request.
There is also information for service users and their carers on the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Act 2003 and the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000. Please contact the team for any leaflets.

Team Philosophy

The philosophy of the team is to not only apply the appropriate legislation and adhere to the Principles of the Act but to also apply social work values. The Mental Health Officers recognise the importance of early intervention, supportive relationships, recovery, inclusion in the community, productive lives and treating each individual and their carers with dignity and respect. The Mental Health Officer's assessment embraces diversity confidentiality and tries to work with people's strength.

This information is provided by the Social Work Department