Mental Health Bill 1981 : a Ray of Hope

Earlier (July, 1977) we had stressed the need for a change in the existing outmoded Lunacy Act of 1912. A ray of hope was visible with the introduction of Mental Health Bill, 1981 in the Rajya Sabha on December 14, 1981. The bill has recognised the existence of psychiatrists in the country. No psychiatric hospital or psychiatric nursing home can be established without association of psychiatrist as medical officer in charge. But the definition of a psychiatrist needs to be restricted to only those possessing a qualification recognised by Medical Council of India. Again it looks paradoxical that a psychiatrist will require certificates of a medical practitioner who may not have been acquainted with the subject of psychiatry during the course of this professional training to be able to keep a mentally sick patient under his care. Since a psychiatrist is most knowledgable about the diagnosis, management and course of mental illness, for the care of the mentally ill, he should be made responsible and be given the authority cf deciding about the admission , treatment and discharge except in the case of mentally ill prisoners. In the proposed bill the provision of involvement of police and use of terms such as 'detainment' and 'arrest' are derogatory to the sick person, and should therefore be modified. If we keep a sick person in jail instead of a hospital for as long as 72 hours and some times even more on the pretext of providing sufficient time for completing legal procedures, I wonder if we would really abide by our commitment to the protection of human rights. This bill provides clear directions as to the payment of cost of maintenance and assistance of legal practitioner to a needy mentally ill person. In accordance with the contemporary humanistic approach in psychiatric medicine, it has very rightly prohibited the use of physical restraint, cruelty and other inhumane approaches in the management of mentally ill person. These are steps that need welcome with an applause, yet it appears that our law-makers are still skeptical of the abilities of trained psychiatrists to rightly diagnose and manage their patients. If a neurosurgeon or chest surgeon can operate upon as vital an organ as brain or heart in a nursing home or a hospital which does not require a licence for being established, why .should a psychiatric nursing home or a psychiafic hospital be subjected to such …