Alex RKA consequence of the fact that the MHA Review report had to be brought forward ahead of the Brexit vote so that there could be certainty that there was a Government to receive it was that it was not accompanied by all of the supporting materials that had been intended. The reports prepared by each of the 18 topic groups beavering away over the summer/early autumn will be published shortly, as should an infographic showing how the revised MHA would be applied at different stages of a person’s encounter with it.
In the meantime, Michael Brown has produced an extremely helpful summary of how the key sections of the Act would be amended; Sophy Miles a useful one-pager (more or less) of the key recommendations; Gerard Lynch, Philip Campbell, Catherine Taggart a summary from a psychiatric perspective; and Oliver Lewis a thoughtful commentary on how the Review has engaged with the CRPD. The Hearing Voices Network, meantime, produced an Alternative Mental Health Act Review which exemplifies precisely what constructive criticism looks like – setting out a powerful challenge against which the recommendations of the Review should undoubtedly be tested as they move towards legislation. Such testing will not only comply with the obligations of the Government imposed by Article 4(3) CRPD, it will also strengthen and improve what ultimately ends up on the statute book.
