The Public and the Mental Health Bill

How far will the Government's new Mental Health Bill help this process of enlightenment? Will some think we are going too far in eroding safeguards which have protected society in the past? To what extent will this new legislation enable us to get better mental health services? What opportunities will it offer the nonprofessional who wishes to play his or her part in helping to solve this problem? These are some of the questions that are being asked and they deserve serious consideration. The law relating to mental disorder must always be the resultant of conflicting interests. On the one hand there is the public safety to be considered. The more potentially dangerous persons are isolated from the community, the greater, obviously, is the protection of the public. On the other hand, there is something offensive in a democratic society in detaining against their will?often for long periods, sometimes for life?persons who have committed no offence against that society. That is the dilemma stated in crude terms. The balance, once heavily weighted in favour of the public safety, has steadily shifted in the direction of individual freedom over the past hundred years and more. The new Mental Health Bill carries the process further. Compulsory powers remain, but in future they will be exercised only on the recommen-