Mentally-ill patients and their families need more protection under the Mental Health Bill, MPs and peers have said. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said the Bill, currently with the House of Lords, needs amending. The controversial plans have come under repeated scrutiny over the way they deal with and define mental illness. Last month, peers backed a move to ensure psychiatric patients who can easily make decisions are able to refuse treatment. The Government's plans would allow the enforced detention of people who are mentally ill, even if they have not committed any crime. The Bill also seeks to strengthen the powers made in 1983 to ensure patients have therapy once they are released back into the community.
Read more at Guardian Unlimited
