Under the Mental Health Act 2001 the Inspectorate carries out a review of mental health services in the state and furnishes a report on the quality of care and treatment given to persons in receipt of mental health services. In 2010 the Inspectorate included a review of prescribing practices in approved centres which comprised of acute units and long stay units. This followed a similar review in 2008 which was contained in the Report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services 2008.

During the inspections of 2010 the Inspectorate collected prescription sheets for both acute and long-stay residents from each adult approved centre. In total 2,340 prescription sheets were collected from 63 approved centres. There were 1,216 prescription sheets from acute units and 1,124 prescription sheets from long-stay units. The prescription sheets were collected on the day of inspection. The emphasis in this analysis was on the quality of the prescription sheets, use of benzodiazepines, and polypharmacy in the use of antipsychotics.