Agreed, there is a difference between being stupid (not taking the advice of medical professionals in a case like this) or being mentally ill (in which case the law can help me). So was the girl in the previous post 'mentally ill' or 'stupid'? 'Stupid' means I can leave them behind, 'mentally ill' means that it's more dangerous to do so, and I have the law as an option. Am I trained enough to determine if someone who is mentally ill is (a) competent, and/or (b) safe to leave at home? I'd quite happily say 'no', which is why a Section has such safeguards as you already know. In the case of the drowning there was no way of getting him Sectioned, so I had to use other coercive techniques, like putting the fear of death into him in order to get him the care that he needed.