Sir, – Henry Murdoch’s article (“Protecting the human rights of involuntary psychiatric patients”, Opinion, April 10th) outlined how important the Mental Health Act 2001 has been in advancing the human rights protections for involuntary patients.
However, while recognising the greater protections the Mental Health Act 2001 has afforded, since then there have been a number of changes, both in Ireland and abroad, that mean the law is not fully human rights compliant and must be urgently updated and amended.
These include the publication of Irish mental health policy in 2006, A Vision for Change, and the introduction of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007, which includes people experiencing mental health problems. These important documents make clear that dignity, respect, recovery and community must be at the heart of mental health services.
Yet the Act as it is currently framed does not have the principles of recovery, choice and equality at its heart and is very paternalistic in its approach. People are not given the support they need and in some cases are stripped of their ability to make choices about treatment and to participate in decisions that affect them.
Currently the Act does not protect voluntary patients, a very serious situation that must be addressed. Many remain in mental health hospitals without any requirement of external review of admission or detention.
Treatment decisions for these patients are made without any oversight. Of equally great concern, there is a lack of protections in relation to electro-convulsive therapy – which, alarmingly, can still be administered to people who do not want it.
Although the tribunal system is a marked improvement on what was available previously, we must also acknowledge its deficits. Amnesty International consulted people who have direct experience of the Act and there are problems in relation to the length of time between admission and tribunal, the lack of automatic access to an advocate and how and when people are re-graded from involuntary to voluntary ahead of a tribunal.
The Government is currently reviewing the Act and has pledged to bring it into line with international human rights standards, and in particular the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is a welcome opportunity that must be used not only to update the law, but also to support a cultural shift in how mental health services are managed and delivered.
The whole of society will benefit if people with mental health problems have their rights fully respected and are given the opportunity to recover within their communities. – Yours, etc,