All you need to know about the new Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016 [Read the Bill]

The Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016 was passed by Rajya Sabha last week, and is expected to be discussed in Lok Sabha during next session. The Bill repeals the existing Mental Health Act, 1987, which is vastly different in letter and spirit. The Act of 1987 had been widely criticised for proving to be inadequate to protect the rights of mentally ill persons. Here are certain things you need to know about the new Bill:1. Mental Healthcare Bill seeks to decriminalise the Attempt to Commit Suicide. The most important feature of this Bill is that a person attempting suicide shall be presumed, though rebuttable, to be suffering from severe stress (the words ‘mental illness’ in the old Bill substituted with ‘severe stress’) and hence, exempt from trial and punishment. The Bill also seeks to impose on the government a duty to rehabilitate such person to ensure that there is no recurrence of attempt to suicide.2. Seeks to fulfil India’s international obligation pursuant to the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol India signed and ratified the Convention on 1st October 2007. The Bill adopts a more nuanced understanding of “mental illness” than the Act of 1987. However the Bill varies from the social model of disability incorporated in the Convention. The social model of disability focuses on how disability hampers a person’s full and effective participation of the society. The Bill, on the other hand, adopts a narrow approach to see mental illness as hampering recognition of reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life and also as conditions associated with drug and alcohol abuse.3. Seeks to empower persons suffering from mental-illness, marking a departure from the Act of 1987.Whereas the Act of 1987 did not recognise the agency and capacity of a person suffering from mental illness, the Bill adopts a radically different approach empowering the individual to make decisions concerning her mental healthcare or treatment. This is in line with the objective of the Convention to uphold the inherent dignity of the persons with disabilities. The capacity to take such decisions is recognised if the individual can understand relevant information, appreciate foreseeable consequences of such decisions and also can communicate them. The Bill also lays down certain parameters for determination of mental illness, seeking to use nationally and internationally accepted medical standards, especially the standards adopted by World Health Organisation. The provision also seeks to preclude irrelevant factors in the determination of mental illness.The Bill provides every person, except a minor, with a right to make an Advance Directive specifying the way the person wishes to be cared for and treated for a mental illness and also to appoint a nominated representative, who is entrusted with the task of protecting the interests of the person suffering from mental illness. It is mandatory for every medical officer and psychiatrist to provide treatment to an individual as per the Advance Directive except when the Mental Health Review Board finds that the directive can be altered on considerations like lack of free will, information or capacity; or illegality of the content; or circumstances differing from those anticipated by the person making the directive.4. Adopts a rights-based approach, which is a first in the mental health law of India.The Bill creates a rights-based framework for mentally ill persons. This is a remarkable difference from the Act of 1987. Whereas the Act of 1987 provided only general protections against indignant or cruel treatment, Chapter V of the Bill operates as a charter of rights for persons with mental illness consolidating and safeguarding the basic human rights of these individuals. The Bill guarantees every person the right to access mental health care and treatment from mental health services run or funded by government. This right is meant to ensure mental health services of affordable cost, of good quality, of sufficient quantity, are geographically accessible and are provided without discrimination.The Bill also recognises the right to community living; right to live with dignity; protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; treatment equal to persons with physical illness; right to relevant information concerning treatment other rights and recourses; right to confidentiality; right to access their basic medical records; right to personal contacts and communication; right to legal aid; recourse against deficiencies in provision of care, treatment and services. Every insurer is bound to make provision for medical insurance for treatment of mental illness on the same basis as is available for treatment of physical illness.5. Provisions for registration of institutions and regulation of the sector The Bill provides for the creation of Central and State Mental Health Authorities in order to ensure registration and supervision of mental health...

All you need to know about the new Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016 [Read the Bill]

R S Lakshman

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