The Guardian view on fixing the Mental Health Act: an overdue return to dignity | Editorial
There is a long way still to go, but the government is taking action to end injustice in the treatment of severe mental illness
The 1983 Mental Health Act provides for some extraordinarily coercive powers. A person with acute mental illness can be detained without their consent and sometimes forcibly removed from their home for that purpose. This is necessary when someone poses a danger to themselves or others, but that imperative must always be applied with clinical sensitivity and regard for fundamental rights. Mental illness is not a criminal offence.
Too often, the boundary between medical intervention and arbitrary detention has been blurred. In 2017, Theresa May, then prime minister, established an independent review to consider why increasing numbers of people were being sectioned and why some groups were affected more than others. The most draconian powers were being disproportionately applied to black people – three times more likely to be detained than white people – and also patients with learning disabilities and autism. Prejudice, compounded by inadequate resourcing of mental health services, has engendered systemic injustice.
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There is a long way still to go, but the government is taking action to end injustice in the treatment of severe mental illness
The 1983 Mental Health Act provides for some extraordinarily coercive powers. A person with acute mental illness can be detained without their consent and sometimes forcibly removed from their home for that purpose. This is necessary when someone poses a danger to themselves or others, but that imperative must always be applied with clinical sensitivity and regard for fundamental rights. Mental illness is not a criminal offence.
Too often, the boundary between medical intervention and arbitrary detention has been blurred. In 2017, Theresa May, then prime minister, established an independent review to consider why increasing numbers of people were being sectioned and why some groups were affected more than others. The most draconian powers were being disproportionately applied to black people – three times more likely to be detained than white people – and also patients with learning disabilities and autism. Prejudice, compounded by inadequate resourcing of mental health services, has engendered systemic injustice.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...
By Editorial
The Guardian view on fixing the Mental Health Act: an overdue return to dignity | Editorial to Continue reading...
NHS Forums - For NHS Staff | Patient Forums
