ABSTRACT
The Mental Health Care Bill - 2013 has been introduced in Rajya Sabha and is now waiting for enactment. The Bill entails unprecedented measures to be undertaken by the Government ensuring everyone right to access mental health care and treatment from services run or funded by the Government. The Government is to meet the man-power requirement of mental health professionals according to international standard within a period of ten years. Various rights of persons with mental illness have been ensured. All the places where psychiatric patients are admitted and treated including the general hospital psychiatry units (GHPU) are to be registered as mental health establishments. Unmodified ECT has been banned and ECT to minors can be given only after approval from the Mental Health Review Board. This article advocates for exemption of GHPU from the purview of the Bill, taking into consideration impediment created in the treatment of vast majority of psychiatric patients who retain their insight into the illness and seldom require involuntary admissions. It is also advocated to reconsider ban on unmodified ECT and restriction placed on ECT to minor which are very effective treatment methods based on scientific evidence. In our country, family is an important asset in management of mental illness. But requirement of seeking approval from the Board in many of the mental health care decision may discourage the families to be proactive in taking care of their wards. The Board and Mental Health Authorities at the central and the state levels are authorized to take many crucial decisions, but these panels have very few experts in the field of mental health.
ABSTRACT
Although there was a rich tradition of legal system in Ancient India, the present judicial system of the country derives largely from the British system and is based on English Common Law, a system of law based on recorded judicial precedents. Earlier legislations in respect of mental health were primarily concerned with custodial aspects of persons with mental illness and protection of the society. Indian laws are also concerned with determination of competency, diminished responsibility and/or welfare of the society. United Nations Convention for Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) was adopted in 2006, which marks a paradigm shift in respect of disabilities (including disability due to mental illness) from a social welfare concern to a human right issue. The new paradigm is based on presumption of legal capacity, equality and dignity. Following ratification of the convention by India in 2008, it became obligatory to revise all the disability laws to bring them in harmony with the UNCRPD. Therefore, the Mental Health Act - 1987 and Persons with Disability Act - 1995 are under process of revision and draft bills have been prepared. Human right activists groups are pressing for provisions for legal capacity for persons with mental illness in absolute terms, whereas the psychiatrists are in favor of retaining provisions for involuntary hospitalization in special circumstances.
