BMJ  2007;334:596-597 (24 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39155.567535.BE

Editorials

New mental health legislation

A decade's deliberations result in confused proposals

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Why after 10 years' effort has the latest Mental Health Bill published in November 2006 been damned as "stigmatising, illiberal and yet curiously timid ... a little like a dying wasp which still has a sting in it"?¹ In November 1999, the Richardson Committee² reported on the reform of mental health law in England and Wales. Patients' rights would be safeguarded by balancing guiding principles and the adoption of capacity—the legal ability to make decisions about treatment—as a determinant of whether compulsory detention and treatment should take place. New law mirroring these key proposals has been successfully introduced in Scotland,³ but in England and Wales the path to reform has been tortuous (table).

View this table:   Development of mental health law proposals in England and Wales

 
The current bill⁴ bears little resemblance to the proposals set out by the Richardson Committee. There is provision, as in Scotland, for supervised treatment . . . [Full text of this article]

Orchard Clinic, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HF

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