Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016.

Mental health legislation in Northern Ireland has always been separate from legislation in the rest of the UK; the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order (MHO) had been in place since 1986. In common with other jurisdictions, this legislation utilises the presence of mental disorder and risk as criteria for detention and involuntary treatment. The MHO has been replaced by the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (MCA), an example of 'fusion' legislation in which impairment of decision-making capacity and best interests are the only criteria to be used when making decisions across health and social care.

Accuracy of diagnosis at routine psychiatric assessment in patients presenting to an accident and emergency department.

Objective: This study aimed to compare diagnoses obtained from routine psychiatric assessment in accident and emergency (A&E) settings with those from a standardized diagnostic interview.

Methods: Using Cohen's kappa, the agreement between diagnoses from routine psychiatric assessment and structured interview was calculated. Further statistical analysis was used to investigate differences between some of the main diagnostic subgroups.