Mental Healthcare Act, 2017

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that "mental health and well-being are fundamental to quality of life, enabling people to experience life as meaningful and become creative and active citizens." According to WHO, health encompasses the composite union of physical, spiritual, mental, and social dimensions. Because people with mental illnesses may not always be able to make their own decisions, mental illness differs greatly from general health.

Objective of the Mental Healthcare Act

The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 was unanimously approved by the Lok Sabha in March 2017. It had previously been approved by the Rajya Sabha in August 2016 and by the Honorable President of India in April 2017. According to the new law, "mental illness" is defined as a significant disturbance of thinking, mood, perception, orientation, or memory that gravely affects judgment or capacity to meet the daily demands of living.

These are also illnesses linked to drug and alcohol misuse. The previous Mental Healthcare Legislation of 1987, which was highly condemned for failing to recognize a mentally ill person's rights and opening the door to isolating such hazardous people, is repealed or canceled by this act. This law nullified Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, which makes it illegal for someone who is mentally ill to attempt suicide.

Rights mentioned under the Mental Healthcare Act

The following are the rights

Provision	Rights of Person with Mental Illness
Section 18	Right to access mental healthcare
Section 19	Right to community living.
Section 20	Right to protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Section 21	Right to equality and non-discrimination.
Section 22	Right to information.
Section 23	Right to confidentiality.
Section 24	Restriction on release of information in respect of mental illness.
Section 25	Right to access medical records.
Section 26	Right to personal contacts and communication
Section 27	Right to legal aid.
Section 28	Right to make complaints about deficiencies in provision of services.

Aim of the Mental Healthcare Act

The 2017 Mental Healthcare Act intends to give people with mental illnesses access to mental healthcare services. It guarantees that these people have the right to live their lives with dignity by protecting them from harassment and discrimination. This law affirms everyone's right to a life free from sex, religious, cultural, or caste-based discrimination. Regarding his or her condition and medical care, everyone has the right to privacy. According to new regulations, ECT cannot be administered without an anesthetic, and ECT is not available for minors. Such patients should not be sterilized, and neither should they be isolated or kept in solitary confinement.

Significance of the Mental Healthcare Act

The act recognizes the rights to community living, a dignified existence, protection from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, treatment on an equal footing with people who suffer from physical illnesses, access to pertinent information about care, other rights and remedies, and confidentiality. The likelihood of this bill being misused is quite high. However, this might be misconstrued as an attempt at suicide in circumstances of dowry-related burning or attempted homicide and won't require the necessary treatment.

People with mental illnesses and their circumstances are made worse in developing nations like India by socioeconomic and cultural issues like lack of access to treatment, superstition, ignorance, stigma, and prejudice. No provisions are mandated by the bill to address these problems. The mental healthcare bill has few provisions for early detection and prevention.

Punishment under the Mental Healthcare Act

The punishment is as follows

Offence	Imprisonment	Fine
Breaking the Act's rules	6-month jail sentence	Rs. 10,000, or both
Repeat offenders	2-years in prison	Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 5 lakh, or both.

Conclusion

Mental Healthcare Act legislated with the noble purpose to setup a proper medical center to provide the healthcare services. Furthermore, in 2017, the Amendment Mental Healthcare Act attempted to fill the gap, which the earlier act unable to fix, in terms of its fundamental approach to mental health issues, including a sensible patient-centric approach to healthcare rather than a criminal-centric one. Primary prevention, reintegration, and rehabilitation are three areas where the recommendations need to be revisited since without these improvements, their execution would be insufficient and the problem of formerly ill people would still persist. In order to be positive about the measure, it is necessary to wait and see its implementation.

Frequently Asked Question

Q1. What is the Mental Health Act?

Ans. The Mental Health Act specifies when you may be admitted to a hospital, detained there, and given treatment against your will. This is only possible if you suffer from a mental illness that puts you or others in danger.

Q2. What does "sectioned" entail in terms of the Mental Health Act?

Ans. The Mental Health Act is divided into numerous sections. If someone uses the phrase "You're being sectioned under the Mental Health Act," they are referring to a specific section of the Mental Health Act that governs your detention.

Q3. What is the brief history of the Mental Health Care Act?

Ans. The need for mental health care is not new in India. The Pre-Independence Phase and the Post-Independence Phase are two distinct periods in Indian mental health care.

• In 1858, the Indian Lunatic Asylum Act was adopted. The Indian Lunacy Act was subsequently updated and approved in 1912.

• 1947 saw the founding of the Indian Psychiatric Society, sometime after we gained our independence.

• In 1987, the Mental Health Act was adopted.

• All of these earlier statutes were superseded by the Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016. On April 7, 2017, it was approved by the Parliament.

Q4. How many sections are there in the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017?

Ans. There are total 126 sections in the Act.

Q5. Where is the term ‘Magistrate’ defined?

Ans. The ‘Magistrate’ is defined under Section 2(l) of the act.