The length of time people with serious psychiatric conditions can be detained must be shortened, an independent representative body for people with mental health issues has told lawmakers.

In a report, the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWC) also says the systems for supporting young people with serious mental illness are “unwieldy and inefficient, if present at all”.

It states Children and Adolescent Mental Health services are “stretched to the limit”.

The calls comes as part of the MWC’s broader comments made in response to a consultation on the law governing the treatment of people suffering poor mental health.

The ongoing review of mental health legislation in Scotland is a “great opportunity” to redesign how people are looked after to ensure their human rights are respected and to properly resource services, the Commission says in its submission.

In particular, the lengths of time people are detained for and the safeguards in place when they are held should be examined.

Year on year increases in the number of people detained who are experiencing poor mental health in Scotland must be also be investigated, the organisation – which is independent from government but accountable to Scottish Government ministers – states.

The commission says the case for shortening maximum detention periods is supported by the fact that many detentions run for the maximum length of time allowed by the law in Scotland under regulations that have not changed for decades.

The consultation which closed on Friday will inform the work of the independent review of the Mental Health Act being led by John Scott QC.

Scotland’s health and social care systems are “substantially different” from those that were in place in 2003, the Commission says, when the current Mental Health Act was passed by parliament.

A new Act needs to take account of these changes, it states.

What is often referred to as the balance of care has shifted across much of our health and social care services in recent years to try to enable more people to be treated in the community rather than in hospital.

“Scarce resources” have led the MWC to call for the support and care available in the community to be reviewed to make sure individuals – particularly children, young people and those with a diagnosis of a personality disorder – are properly looked after.

It says a lack of community support often leaves families trying to support ill individuals with “limited knowledge and resources of their own”.

“Mental health legislation can restrict and deprive a person of their liberty and can impose treatment that they do not want or cannot consent to,” explains Dr Arun Chopra, medical director at the Mental Welfare Commission.

“Traditionally one purpose of legislation was to ensure that people who are unwell are treated to restore them to health and reduce any risks that their altered state of health might pose to their safety and that of others.

“A further purpose was to ensure that when someone is made subject to detention or treatment that they cannot or do not consent to, that there is a mechanism for this detention to be reviewed, and safeguards are in place to ensure that people are treated in accordance with their human rights.

“Developments in International law would suggest that a Mental Health Act ought to go further and focus on the restoration of other rights that are impinged on by the presence of disability (such as serious mental illness).

Dr Chopra added: “The Review of Scotland’s Mental Health Act gives us a great opportunity to fully consider those developments, alongside the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which came into force after our current Act.

“Scotland’s legislation can be re-framed in such a way that the human rights of people with serious mental illness are clearly are the centre.’

‘While reviewing the Act is vital, it will only be effective if it is adequately resourced. We ask that resources are considered at all key stages of the Review.”

 

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