The Bill, which was introduced in the House of Lords last week, will reform the Mental Health Act 1983—found to be outdated by a 2018 independent review conducted by Professor Sir Simon Wessely.
The review identified rising rates of detention, racial disparities in detention and treatment orders, poor patient experience and disadvantages felt by people with a learning disability and autistic people.
According to the government, the Bill aims to give people greater choice and autonomy over their treatment, will end the use of police cells to detain someone experiencing a mental health crisis, and will require clinicians to review a patient’s treatment more frequently. It clarifies that individuals should only be detained if their condition means they are a risk of serious harm to themselves or others, and treatment in detention has a reasonable prospect of helping them.
Families and friends will be given more opportunities to contribute to decisions about treatment. The government also says it wants to limit the length of time people with a learning disability and autistic people can be detained under the Act if they do not have a co-occurring mental health condition that needs hospital treatment and have not committed a criminal offence.
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said: ‘We are pleased it protects patients from inappropriate detention and provides them with enough involvement and support in decisions about their care.
‘We hope the Bill will give mental health patients access to justice, dignity and the respect they deserve. In the previous parliament, we had worked closely with the joint committee on the draft Mental Health Bill. We will continue to scrutinise the newly published Bill to ensure that it provides agency to individuals.’
The Bill is due to have its second reading at the end of this month.
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