The Queen's Speech 2003 - Mental Health legislation was not mentioned
Depression Alliance campaigned vigorously to ensure that the Draft Mental Health Bill 2002 was withdrawn. The charity feared that the proposed legislation was unfair, unworkable, highly stigmatising and would contravene Articles 3 and 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, Depression Alliance was surprised that a reformed Mental Health Bill was not included in this year's Queen's speech and is now seeking clarification from the government on its proposed course of action with regards to plans for future mental health legislation. It will be difficult for anyone involved in mental health to plan ahead until this matter is resolved but we are pleased to note the Health Minister's commitment to working with stakeholders to get the Bill right.
Currently people affected by mental health problems receive inadequate care due to a lack of community psychiatric services with thousands of people having to fall back on primary care. Without massive extra resources, any new legislation will fail in its objective of protecting good mental health. We welcome the Health Secretary's commitment to extra resources and support Dr Louis Appleby's (the National Clinical Director for Mental Health) recent calls for greater transparency in how that money is spent.
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