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13 February 2020 / Keith Wilding
Issue: 7874 / Categories: Features , Mental health
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Support Act

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Keith Wilding reflects on the steps needed to bring about an ‘enduring legacy of mental health support’ 
  • The review proposes a cultural change in the assessment and treatment of mental ill-health.
  • The tension between liberty and autonomy.
  • Recommendations for a substantial investment in resources in mental health services.

It is now well over a year since the last government published the final report of the review of the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA 1983) by Professor Sir Simon Wessely and his team (‘Modernising the Mental Health Act— Increasing choice, reducing compulsion’, December 2018, https://bit.ly/2uAQ8WP). With a new government in place, there is revived hope that many of the key recommendations for change, outlined below, can now be driven forward.

The review notes that severe mental illness has been overlooked in the past and that there is a clear case for change: ‘[T]he rate of detention is rising, the patient’s voice is lost within the process….there is unacceptable overrepresentation of black and ethnic minority ethnic groups amongst people detained, and people with

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