The Mental Health Act 2001 is in conflict with human rights legislation in a number of key areas and could lead to legal action by patients over their detention or treatment, a human rights expert has told a conference on mental health issues.
Addressing a conference organised by the Cork Advocacy Network in association with the Department of Applied Social Studies at University College Cork, Mary Keys, senior lecturer in law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, said that while the 2001 Act was a marked improvement on the 1945 legislation, there remained some deficiencies in the new legislation, which came into effect in its entirety earlier this month.
According to the Mental Health Commission (MHC), which was set up under the Act, the Mental Health Act 2001 brings Irish mental health law into line with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
However, Ms Keys said the new legislation failed to meet human rights legislation requirements, in that it did not require the authorities to explain to people who were being held compulsorily in a psychiatric hospital why they were being held. "You should always be told why your liberty is being removed - we are not required to do that in this Act."
She pointed out that some 11 per cent of admissions to Irish psychiatric hospitals were involuntary or compulsory admissions.
Ms Keys also expressed concerns that a detained patient could be treated with medicine without their consent for three months without the hospital authorities being required to obtain a second medical opinion.
It was of particular concern in the case of children who were committed on a court order that they could be treated with medicine for three months before the hospital authorities were required to seek a second opinion, Ms Keys said.
She is also concerned that the code of practice for the Act recognises that children will continue to be treated in adult hospitals for the foreseeable future, despite the MHC's desire to see the number of specialist inpatient child places increased from 20.
Ms Keys also expressed concern regarding involuntarily admitted patients when they've been refused a discharge from a hospital by a review tribunal and they decide to appeal the refusal to the Circuit Court.
Under the terms of the Mental Health Act, the person must prove to the court that they are not ill and are fit to be discharged, whereas in human rights legislation the onus is on the hospital to prove that the person needs to be detained, according to Ms Keys.
