Draft Mental Health Bill 2002 Defeated!

1. It contravened Articles 3 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
2. It was highly stigmatising and will deter people with mental illness from seeking help.
3. It was likely to lead to a "safety first" culture in which people are detained due to a perception of risk rather than any actual threat to themselves and/or others.
4. It would have resulted in more bureaucracy leading to less patient care.
5. It would have lead to people receiving inadequate services due to bed blocking, overstretching of community psychiatric services and thousands of people having to fall back on primary care services.
6. Without massive extra resources, it would have failed in its objective of preventing people with mental illnesses committing homicide and suicide; and would have made ordinary mental health care unworkable in practice.