Functions
The Board's primary statutory role is to review involuntary patients, in accordance with the Act. Involuntary patients are those people who have been placed by a psychiatrist on an involuntary order under the Act. There are two types of involuntary orders that a psychiatrist may make. One is for a person to be detained in an authorised hospital as an involuntary patient: section 43. The other is for the person to be placed on a Community Treatment Order (CTO), an involuntary order that requires the patient to comply with the treatment plan specified in the order but otherwise enables the patient to live in the community: section 66.

When conducting a review the Board always comprises a member of each of the three categories, that is a lawyer, a psychiatrist and a community member. In conducting a review, the Board reviews the decision of a psychiatrist to order or maintain the involuntary status of a patient and has to decide whether or not the involuntary order should continue to have effect. (primarily section 4, section 26 and section 137).

Further information about the way in which the Board conducts reviews is contained in this website. For full details of the Board policies, please see the Board's Handbook.