New civil commitment legislation. The relevance of commitment "criteria".

Following categorization procedures used in previous studies samples of 75 and 62 involuntary admissions. Form 3s and applications from assessment respectively (1978 Mental Health Act), were examined. There occurred a significant decline in civil commitments (Form 3s) in the 8-month period subsequent to, as compared to the 6-month period preceding, the revised legislation. This decline, however, occurred only when data for assessment applications were omitted from analysis. Operating criteria for civil commitment, as determined from certificate analyses, showed no substantive changes as compated to those found in previous studies of then-current legislation. Some interpretation and discussion of such findings are presented. More research is required to assess further the reality and nature of effects generated by the new law. A salutory feature of the law is that review of psychiatric assessments, at or within a 5-day period after admission, is correlated with a change to voluntary status in most cases. The exact meaning of this and of other specific effects await further study.