Section 136 and the psychiatric intensive care unit: Setting up a health based place of safety in Gloucestershire

Abstract

In England and Wales, the law allows a mentally disordered person who is in a public place and requires care or control to be taken to a Place of Safety (POS) for assessment. Historically the POS has usually been the police cells but recent policy development has supported the provision of alternative POSs. In this article we describe how a new POS was set up on a hospital site in Gloucestershire.