News

The Mental Health Alliance will today lobby the government over its proposals to amend mental health legislation in England and Wales.

The alliance, which is made up of service users, practitioners and psychiatrists, oppose planned changes to the Mental Health Act 1983, including plans to introduce compulsory treatment in the community, unveiled by the Department of Health earlier this month.

The alliance is calling for a mental health bill that:

· Ensures all treatment provided under compulsion gives a health benefit to the patient;

· Limits community treatment orders to a small number of people who really need them and does not impose unnecessary conditions on them;
· Gives everyone sectioned under the Act an advocate and the right to choose who speaks up for them; and
· Gives patients and carers the right to an assessment when they ask for it, before crisis point is reached.

Further information
Mental Health Alliance