Psychiatry cannot be allowed to dominate debate on Mental Health Act 

In all the debate about the Mental Health Act, it is troubling that the discussion has been among doctors and commentators — and not those directly impacted, write Jennifer Hough and Liam MacGabhann

The way to help people who are struggling, who are different, who are living in a chaotic family or community, who have extraordinary experiences, who are in deep emotional distress and may not have ‘insight’ into the limitations of psychiatric diagnosis is not to lock them up as second-class citizens. File picture

Recent public debate around long-awaited reform of the Mental Health Act, 2001 has predominantly consisted of doctors and commentators creating moral panic over legal changes they claim will erode doctors ‘right’ to force treat people. 

Let’s be clear: the Mental Health Act, 2001 will continue to allow people to be involuntarily confined and force treated. Let’s also have some clarity that under the current system, mental health outcomes are very far from satisfactory. Indeed, despite the now accepted deconstruction of ‘mental illness’ as simply a diagnostic construct, this system is now largely upheld because of legislative frameworks.