Editing Involuntary commitment (section)

===United Kingdom===
In the United Kingdom, provision for the care of the [[Mental illness|mentally ill]] began in the early 19th century with a state-led effort. Public mental asylums were established in Britain after the passing of the [[County Asylums Act 1808|1808 County Asylums Act]]. This empowered [[magistrate]]s to build rate-supported asylums in every [[county]] to house the many "pauper lunatics". Nine counties first applied, and the first public asylum opened in 1812 in [[Nottinghamshire]]. [[Parliamentary Committee]]s were established to investigate abuses at private madhouses like [[Bethlem Hospital]] - its officers were eventually dismissed and national attention was focused on the routine use of bars, chains and handcuffs and the filthy conditions in which the inmates lived. However, it was not until 1828 that the newly appointed [[Commissioners in Lunacy]] were empowered to license and supervise private asylums.

[[File:Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury by John Collier.jpg|thumb|left|220px|[[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury|Lord Shaftesbury]], a vigorous campaigner for the reform of lunacy law in England, and the Head of the [[Lunacy Commission]] for 40 years.]]

The [[Lunacy Act 1845]] was a landmark in the treatment of the mentally ill, as it explicitly changed the status of mentally ill people to [[patients]] who required treatment. The Act created the [[Lunacy Commission]], headed by [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury|Lord Shaftesbury]], focusing on reform of the legislation concerning lunacy.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Unsworth |first=Clive  |title=Law and Lunacy in Psychiatry's 'Golden Age' |journal=Oxford Journal of Legal Studies |volume=13 |issue=4 |date=Winter 1993 |pages=482 |doi=10.1093/ojls/13.4.479 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/oxfjls13&div=34 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The commission consisted of eleven Metropolitan Commissioners who were required to carry out the provisions of the Act;<ref name="Wright, 1999">[[David Wright (academic)|Wright, David]]: "Mental Health Timeline", 1999<!-- Someone will need to contact him to ask if he knows what this could possibly be referring to. there are no hints to what it is even if you follow all the merges and splits and moves of this information through edit histories and Wright's own list of all his publications doesn't include this either  --></ref>{{full citation needed|date=November 2014}} the compulsory construction of asylums in every county, with regular inspections on behalf of the [[Home Secretary]]. All asylums were required to have written regulations and to have a resident qualified [[physician]].<ref name="Wright, 1999"/> A national body for asylum superintendents - the ''Medico-Psychological Association'' - was established in 1866 under the Presidency of [[William A. F. Browne]], although the body appeared in an earlier form in 1841.<ref name=Shorter41>{{cite book |last1=Shorter |first1=E. |title=A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac |year=1997 |place=New York |publisher=Wiley |isbn=0-471-15749-X |oclc=34513743 |pages=34, 41}}</ref>

By the late 1800s, there were almost 300 public and private asylums in Britain and Ireland.<ref>[https://historic-hospitals.com/mental-hospitals-in-britain-and-ireland/asylums-in-the-united-kingdom-in-1898/  Historic Hospitals website, ''Asylums in the United Kingdom in 1898'']</ref><ref name=Shorter34>Shorter, E. (1997), p. 34</ref> By the late 1890s and early 1900s, those so detained had risen to the hundreds of thousands. However, the idea that mental illness could be ameliorated through institutionalization was soon disappointed.<ref name=Shorter46>Shorter, E. (1997), p. 46</ref> Psychiatrists were pressured by an ever-increasing patient population.<ref name=Shorter46/> The average number of patients in asylums kept increasing.<ref name=Shorter46/> Asylums were quickly becoming almost indistinguishable from custodial institutions,<ref name=Rothman>Rothman, D.J. (1990). ''The Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic''. Boston: Little Brown, p. 239. {{ISBN|978-0-316-75745-4}}</ref> and the reputation of psychiatry in the medical world had was at an extreme low.<ref name=Shorter65>Shorter, E. (1997), p. 65</ref>

In modern times involuntary detention and treatment without agreement as regulated under one of various sections of the [[Mental Health Act 1983]] is informally known as "sectioning".<ref>{{cite web | title=Mental Health Act |publisher=UK NHS| date=7 September 2022| url=https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/social-care-and-your-rights/mental-health-and-the-law/mental-health-act/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=What are your legal rights if you are sectioned | website=Mind | url=https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/legal-rights/sectioning/about-sectioning/ |date=July 2020}}</ref> Sectioning is now regulated by the [[Mental Health Act 2007]] in England and Wales, the [[Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003]] in Scotland and other legislation in Northern Ireland.