Ruling in favour of mentally ill woman

THE High Court has ruled that a woman with a long history of mental illness was being detained unlawfully because of a flaw in the forms used by psychiatrists to renew a patient’s period of detention.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, successful challenged the legality of a renewal order for her detention made under Section 15 of the Mental Health Act 2001. However, Mr Justice Bryan McMahon said he was not prepared to order the immediate release of the woman from detention at a Dublin psychiatric hospital because of the present state of her health.

The case prompted the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to introduce emergency legislation which was passed on Thursday. The Government’s legal advisers had recommended the measure as they correctly predicted the outcome of the challenge would mean that more than 200 other patients being held in involuntary detention would be entitled to their freedom.