Changing the Mental Health Act

Rethink Mental illness has been campaigning to reform the outdated Mental Health Act for years. We will not rest until it is suitable for the modern world.

About the Mental Health Act

Sometimes people are so unwell they need to go into hospital for care and treatment for their mental health.

They may be experiencing a crisis and not want to go into hospital, which means they could be placed there against their wishes. This is known as ‘detention’ or ‘being sectioned’. The law allowing that to happen is called the Mental Health Act.

Detention should be a last resort. And too many people detained under the Mental Health Act feel ignored with no involvement in the care they receive.

In 2018, an independent panel made recommendations for improving the Mental Health Act. It took the government until 2022 to release a draft Mental Health Bill to make changes. That Bill was reviewed with suggestions by organisations like ourselves.

Reform of the Mental Health Act was included in the King’s Speech in July 2024. This means that the draft Bill will soon start the process of going through Parliament and within the next year an improved Mental Health Act will become law. This is a significant milestone in the long campaign for change led by people experiencing mental illness, their families, and charities like ours.

Why update the Mental Health Act?

The Mental Health Act was created over 40 years ago. The world has changed drastically since 1983 and people deserve an updated and equal system.

The Mental Health Act doesn’t give people enough say in the treatment they would like.

Once detained, your ‘nearest relative’ is automatically chosen to be most closely involved in your care, which is outdated and fails to consider family dynamics.

Black men are 3.5 times more likely detained under the current Mental Health Act. And they are eight times more likely to be on a Community Treatment Order after leaving hospital – restricting them to particular treatments and being required to keep in regular contact with a care team.

And the time between chances you get to be in front of a Mental Health Tribunal to decide your rights while detained are far too long.

The changes we want to see

The Mental Health Act must be person-centred. We agree with the four general principles put forward for the Mental Health Act by the independent review panel:

• Choice and autonomy – making sure the person’s views and choices are respected.
• Least restriction – making sure that the MHA’s powers are used in the least restrictive way possible.
• Therapeutic benefit – making sure that people are supported to get better, so they can be discharged from the MHA.
• Seeing the person as an individual – making sure people are viewed and treated as individuals.

We desperately want to see those principles come to life, with changes including:

• Detention under the Mental Health Act should only happen if therapeutic for the person.
• There will be a higher threshold for detention based on the risk that someone poses to themselves or others.
• People will have a care and treatment plan that will be legally binding.
• It will be easier for people to make advance choices for their care and treatment.
• People will be detained for shorter periods of time before their detention is reviewed.
• People will have more frequent access to a Mental Health Tribunal to ask for their detention to be reviewed.
• People will be able to nominate the person they want to be most closely involved in their care and treatment.
• People will have to ‘opt out’ of receiving the services of an advocate, rather than it just being offered to them.
• Being put on a Community Treatment Order will involve the community team more and it will be easier to apply to have this removed.

Removing inequalities in mental health treatment

The inequalities faced by many people under the Mental Health Act should not be tolerated. Changing Community Treatment Orders so that there is better access to community services after discharge and easier ways to come off the order will go some way to reduce it.

We hope, in time, Community Treatment Orders can be abolished altogether. For that to happen we need mental health services at a standard where everyone is supported to maintain their mental health without the need for compulsory treatment.