Peace Of Mind: An Examination Of The Mental Healthcare Act Of 2017

The times we go through has refocussed attention to the importance of maintaining good mental health and managing stress and anxiety properly. In India, apart from the age-old stigma attached to seeking mental health, another issue is being able to afford good mental healthcare. Private mental healthcare professionals, much like any others, would be out of the reach of people who are not well off. Mental healthcare legislation in India was found to be lacking in various respects and had to be brought into conformity with the convention of the United Nations Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its optional protocol which India signed and ultimately ratified on the first of October in 2007. The mental healthcare bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2013 and eventually passed in 2017. The Act came into force in 2018 and is widely seen as a positive development in ensuring the proper and dignified treatment of persons who have a mental illness. This Article seeks to examine the notable provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act and the Rehabilitation Council of India Act and examine the statutory framework prevailing in India pertaining to Mental Healthcare The Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 The mental healthcare Act was passed on 7th April 2017 and came into force on 7th July 2018. The purpose of the Act is "to provide for the mental healthcare and services for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of such persons during delivery of mental healthcare services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto."Section 2 is the definition clause anddefines of 'mental health establishment,' 'mental illness,' 'clinical psychologists, ' etc.[1] Some of the important definitions for our purpose are being reproduced below: "mental health establishment" means any health establishment, including Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy establishment, by whatever name called, either wholly or partly, meant for the care of persons with mental illness, established, owned, controlled or maintained by the appropriate Government, local authority, trust, whether private or public, corporation, co-operative society, organisation or any other entity or person, where persons with mental illness are admitted and reside at, or kept in, for care, treatment, convalescence and rehabilitation, either temporarily or otherwise; and includes any general hospital or general nursing home established or maintained by the appropriate Government, local authority, trust, whether private or public, corporation, co-operative society, organisation or any other entity or person; but does not include a family residential place where a person with mental illness resides with his relatives or friends;"mental illness" means a substantial disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation or memory that grossly impairs judgment, behaviour, capacity to recognise reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life, mental conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol and drugs, but does not include mental retardation which is a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person, specially characterised by subnormality of intelligence; Chapter V of the Act specifies the rights of persons with mental illness. Section 18 (1) specifies that every person will have the right to access mental healthcare and treatment from mental health services, which are run or funded by the appropriate government. This right intends to make available affordable, good quality mental healthcare services without any discrimination in a manner that is acceptable to the persons of mental health illness and their families and caregivers. The services which are mentioned in Section 18(1) are specified in Section 18(4). The definition is inclusive and not exhaustive. The government must make the following services available for people: Acute mental healthcare services such as outpatient and inpatient servicesHalf-way homes, sheltered accommodation, supported accommodationMental health services to support the family of a person with mental illness or home-based rehabilitationHospital and community-based rehabilitation establishment and servicesChild mental health services and old age mental health services. Section 18(5) lays down the mandatory duties of the appropriate government with respect to mental health services. The Appropriate Government will either be the Central Government or the State Government or the Government of the Union Territory depending on whose jurisdiction a mental health establishment comes under.The duties of the Government include integrating health services into general healthcare services at all levels, ensuring that no person, including children, will be required to travel long distances to avail of mental healthcare and to...

Peace Of Mind: An Examination Of The Mental Healthcare Act Of 2017

Raghav Tankha

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