Mental health bill reaches major milestone
20 Sep 2024
Reading time: 2 minutes
Major reforms to mental health legislation have cleared second stage in the Dáil.
The 202-section Mental Health Bill 2024 will replace the existing Mental Health Act 2001.
It provides for an updated involuntary admission and detention process for people with severe mental health difficulties, including a revised set of criteria for admission, as well as an overhauled approach to consent to treatment for involuntarily admitted people.
It also expands the Mental Health Commission’s regulatory function to include all community mental health residences and services, including all community CAMHS.
Some of its changes are intended to bring mental health law into “closer alignment” with the principles of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Acts 2015 and 2022.
Mary Butler, minister for mental health and older people, said: “The Mental Health Bill is a really important piece of legislation and is our opportunity to put in place more person-centric mental health legislation that will further modernise, reform and protect the rights of people with mental health difficulties in the decades ahead.”
She added: “Individuals receiving treatment under the Mental Health Bill 2024 will be empowered to play a more active role in making decisions about their care and treatment, and there will be closer alignment between the Mental Health Bill and the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Acts 2015 and 2022.
“Additional safeguards will also be put in place for individuals, such as additional safeguards on the use of restrictive practices, and provisions providing for the involvement of family members or carers in a person’s treatment in cases where the person has given their explicit consent.
“The bill will also benefit all people who access a wide range of mental health services by introducing, for the first time, a comprehensive system of registration and regulation of community mental health services, including all community CAMHS.”
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