Technically they should tell you every time that you are being detained under s.136 MHA - it's treated as an arrest under the powers of PACE, and I think it comes under there (section 28 maybe?). But I'm not certain on that, so it might be that in some situations it is different.
In practice, it will vary and that won't always happen (rightly or wrongly). I guess from their point of view it's like with drunk people - they won't always tell a very drunk person everything about the arrest/legal rights etc straight away because in some cases that person won't be able to understand or comply.
So I guess (and again, this doesn't make it right necessarily) their view is that if they had told you then maybe you wouldn't have coped with that, so they play it down or avoid telling you in order to keep a person calm.
But as Threxy said, in my experience they will often not specifically say 'I'm detaining you under section 136 of the Mental Health Act'. I think only once have they said that to me. The other occasions it's been 'We're just helping you get some help', 'We're taking you to hospital' etc. Or on one occasion, when I was scared of them taking me somewhere, the police officer actually said to me 'I'm not taking you anywhere'. Which was true. Because his colleague was driving. Way to avoid answering much. :\
But yes, I don't think they will always specfically say it, even though really they should.
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