Comparison of mental health legislation for involuntary treatments across the Commonwealth

Methods World Health Organization (WHO) and Council of Europe (CoE) guidance on the desirable components of mental health legislation were used to develop standards for criteria for involuntary admission and treatment. The standards include the presence of appeal or review procedures, conditions included/excluded under the remit of the law, and thresholds for risk and incapacity that would legitimize involuntary treatment. Mental Health Acts from a range of high and low resource Commonwealth jurisdictions were rated against the criteria. Instances where current law falls short of the guidelines were noted, as were examples of good practice that could be used as models for law reform.