Abstract
Mental health refers to our psychological, social, and emotional well-being. It affects our day-to-day activities and our relationships.
Every age group can experience a negative mental health experience that needs to be dealt with. Mental health affects how we act, feel or think. It changed our reaction and perception of objects and situations.
The recent years with the growing population, severe financial downslides, environment,
and socio-economic conditions have led to increased issues in the mental health of individuals.
Mood young adults and teenagers in the late 2010s versus the mid-2000s have experienced
severe depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, chronic distress or have attempted suicide.
These trends are non existing in the generation above them suggesting a generational shift in mood disorders instead of an overall increase across all ages.
Given that the increase in mental health issues was sharpest after 2011, young adults believes it’s unlikely to be due to genetics or economic woes and more likely to be due to sudden cultural changes, such as shifts in how teens and young adults spend their time outside of work and school.
In India, the Mental Health Care Act 2017 got passed on 7 April 2017and came into force on 29 May 2018.
The law proclaimed in its opening paragraph as “An Act to provide for mental healthcare and services for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfill the rights of such persons during delivery of mental healthcare and services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”
The Mental Health Care Act 2017 superseded the previously existing Mental Health Act 1987 that came into existence in May of 1987.
The Mental Health Care Act 2017 provides rights to persons suffering from a mental illness and also healthcare to combat their situation. The Mental Health Care Act 2017 came into existence in order to harmonize and put into alignment the local Mental Healthcare Act 1987 with the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Protocol which was adopted by the UN on December 13th, 2006, and came into force on May 3rd, 2008.
The definition for mental illness is as follows “a substantial disorder of thinking, mood and perception, orientation, or memory that grossly impairs judgment, behavior, capacity to recognize reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life, mental conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol and drugs. But it doesn’t regard mental retardation, a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person, especially characterized by subnormality of intelligence, as mental illness”
“Mental healthcare includes analysis and diagnosis of a person’s mental condition and treatment as well as care and rehabilitation of such person for his mental illness or suspected mental illness”
The Act in section 3 says that mental illness shall be determined with Indian as well as International accordance of medical standards. No individual or authority should clarify a person with any mental illness unless for medical purposes to treat that individual.
An individual who has earlier been hospitalized or been through past treatments should not justify the mental health of that person in the present or for the future. The individual with the mental illness is given the right to make decisions regarding his mental healthcare if he/ she has the ability to understand, communicate, and “appreciate any reasonably foreseeable consequence of a decision or lack of decision on the treatment or admission or personal assistance”. The information regarding mental healthcare is given using simple language, sign language, or using visual aids, whichever enables him/her to understand the information being provided. If the individual makes a decision that is deemed inappropriate by others does not mean that the individual does not have the mental capacity.
Any individual, treated earlier or not, has the right to make an advance directive regarding the way the person wishes to be cared for and treated for his/her mental illness. The advance directive should be in writing and the person should not be a minor. Only the legal guardian can make an advance directive for a minor.
According to section 18 of the act, every person has the right to access mental treatment and healthcare and healthcare services funded by our government at affordable cost, of good quality without discrimination.
The rights given to a mental illness patient are in section 19 of the act which says that have a right to live and not be segregated from society. They should not be forced to live in a mental asylum because they do not have family or are not accepted by their respective families. In such cases, the government will provide support including legal aid, and also provide for or support the establishment of less restrictive community-based establishments.
An individual coming under the mental health act 2017 has the right to live in a safe and hygienic environment, to have adequate sanitary conditions, to have reasonable facilities for leisure, recreation, education, and religious practices, to privacy, for proper clothing, wholesome food, not be subject to compulsory tonsuring which is forceful shaving of the head. According to section 21 of this act, they have a right to equality and non- discrimination and a right to information according to section 22.
A Central Mental Health authority is set up with the following members, Secretary or Additional Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Joint Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Ayurveda,Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy, Director General of Health Services, Joint Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Disability Affairs of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Joint Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Directors of the Central Institutions for Mental Health, such other ex officio representatives from the relevant Central Government
Ministries or Department, one mental health professional, one psychiatric social worker, one clinical psychologist, one mental health nurse, two persons representing persons who have or have had mental illness, two persons representing caregivers of persons with mental illness or organisations representing caregivers, two persons representing non-governmental organisations which provide services to persons with mental illness, two persons representing areas relevant to mental health.
A State Mental Health Authority is also set up with the chairperson and ex officio members hold the office so long as he holds the office by virtue of which he is nominated. The members of State authority hold office for a term of three years similar to that of central authority.
Few procedures which seem barbarian and clearly against human rights are prohibited exclusively. These procedures make mental healthcare seem to be an entirely gruesome experience but these patients need to be aware that these procedures are forbidden and that they need not be scared and come forth with the treatment in a positive attitude.
- Electro-convulsive therapy without the use of muscle relaxants and anesthesia,
- Electro-convulsive therapy for minors,
- Sterilization of men or women, when such sterilization is intended as a treatment for mental illness,
- Chained in any manner or form whatsoever.
Section 96 of the Chapter XIIV states: No psychosurgery shall be performed until:
- The informed consent of the patient on whom surgery is being performed.
- Approval from the concerned board to perform the surgery.
Decriminalizing the Attempt to Commit Suicide “section 115(1) notwithstanding anything contained in Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code any person who attempts to commit suicide shall be presumed, unless proved otherwise, to have severe stress and shall not be tried and punished under the said code”
The responsibilities of other agencies such as the police with respect to people with mental illness have been outlined in the 2017 Act.
Section 126 repealed the earlier act of the Mental Healthcare Act 1987