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Practical, rights-based guides from NeuroHub Connect. Every guide here is free to download. If one helps you and you’d like to give something back, you can make a donation of any amount you choose. You don’t have to.
The Mental Health Act, hospital and restricted patients
Two guides on how the Mental Health Act works in England and Wales: being detained, life on a ward, and the restricted patient system. There’s a full training manual and an easy read version. The law is stated as at 5 November 2026.
Training manual
The Mental Health Act, the Inpatient System and the Restricted Patient System
A rights-based, neurodiversity-affirming guide for advocates, peer supporters, practitioners, families and neurodivergent people. It covers:
- the Mental Health Act 1983, the civil sections, police powers, consent to treatment and the Mental Health Act 2025 reforms
- the inpatient journey, restrictive practices, and autistic people and people with a learning disability in hospital
- the restricted patient system: tribunals, leave, conditional discharge, supervision and recall
Easy read
The Mental Health Act, being in hospital, and restricted patients
The easy read version of the training manual. It uses short sentences and pictures, and it explains hard words. It’s for people who are in hospital or might go to hospital, and for their families, supporters and staff.
- Part 1: The Mental Health Act
- Part 2: Being in hospital
- Part 3: Restricted patients
- Part 4: Getting help, plus a word list
Important: the Mental Health Act guides are for training and information. They are not legal advice. Mental health law is changing, and most of the Mental Health Act 2025 is not yet in force. Always check current law, the Code of Practice and local policy, and get specialist legal advice about a person’s own situation.
Monotropism
A guide to monotropism, the Autistic-developed theory of how interest-based minds use attention, and the ideas that have grown from it.
Guide
Monotropism: A Complete Guide
Understanding the interest-based mind, for Autistic and ADHD people, families and the professionals who support them. It covers:
- what monotropism is, where it came from, and how it reframes “obsessions”, “rigidity” and overwhelm
- attention tunnels, flow, Autistic inertia, the monotropic split and the monotropic spiral
- atypical burnout, “meerkat mode” and the burnout-to-psychosis cycle
- practical support: lilipadding, nesting, and nine ways to support monotropic people
If you need help now
If you or someone else is in danger, call 999. For urgent mental health help in England or Wales, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option. You can talk to Samaritans any time, free, on 116 123.
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