Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of boxes
- List of legislation, treaties and conventions
- List of cases
- 1 Human rights and mental illness
- 2 Mental Health Acts 1983 and 2007: England and Wales
- 3 Fusing mental health and capacity legislation: Northern Ireland
- 4 Mental Health Act 2001: Ireland
- 5 The challenges of reform: Scotland
- 6 Structural violence, power and mental illness
- 7 Conclusions: fighting for rights
- Notes
- References
- Index
3 - Fusing mental health and capacity legislation: Northern Ireland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of boxes
- List of legislation, treaties and conventions
- List of cases
- 1 Human rights and mental illness
- 2 Mental Health Acts 1983 and 2007: England and Wales
- 3 Fusing mental health and capacity legislation: Northern Ireland
- 4 Mental Health Act 2001: Ireland
- 5 The challenges of reform: Scotland
- 6 Structural violence, power and mental illness
- 7 Conclusions: fighting for rights
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines the process of reform of mental health and capacity legislation currently underway in Northern Ireland, a process that represents one of the most challenging and possibly progressive innovations in European mental health legislation in several decades. The chapter commences with an examination of the ‘comprehensive legislative framework’ presented by the Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability (2007a) and then examines the Mental Capacity Bill 2015, which is not implemented but seeks to fuse mental health legislation and mental capacity legislation into a single Bill, in apparently improved compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (United Nations, 2006). The Bill, which reached its second stage in the Northern Ireland Assembly in June 2015, appears to be designed along lines similar to those proposed by Dawson & Szmukler (2006) and Szmukler et al (2014), and in this chapter it is duly examined in the context of this literature, and appropriate conclusions are drawn. As in other chapters of this book, this chapter examines civil rather than criminal provisions, and focuses on adults rather than children.
The Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability
The Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability (Northern Ireland) was established in 2002 and its main report, A Comprehensive Legislative Framework, published in August 2007 (Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability, 2007a). The terms of reference (p. 89) were quite broad:
‘1. To carry out an independent review of the effectiveness of current policy and service provision relating to mental health and learning disability, and of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986.
2. To take into account:
• The need to recognise, preserve, promote and enhance the personal dignity of people with mental health needs or a learning disability and their carers;
• The need to promote positive mental health in society;
• Relevant legislative and other requirements, particularly relating to human rights, discrimination and equality of opportunity;
• Evidence-based best practice developments in assessment, treatment and care regionally, nationally and internationally;
• The need for collaborative working among all relevant stakeholders both within and outside the health and personal social services sector;
• The need for comprehensive assessment, treatment and care for people with a mental health need or a learning disability who have offended or are at risk of offending; and
• Issues relating to incapacity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Mental Illness, Human Rights and the Law , pp. 63 - 103Publisher: Royal College of PsychiatristsPrint publication year: 2016