ABSTRACT
Is there any other affliction which creates such suspicion and wariness, so that the words of a philanthropist writing in the early reign of Queen Victoria still ring true today? Not even AIDS evokes such fear in the minds of an otherwise fairly intelligent and tolerant public. Thus, half a century’s-worth of legislative reforms recently came under threat. These more liberal attitudes towards mental illness were first given expression in the 1959 Mental Health Act, with its emphasis on voluntary treatment whenever possible, and on seeing mental illness as a medical condition. Later, the 1983 Mental Health Act stressed the principle of care in the community and introduced a check on whether any restrictions on liberty were only as strong as they needed to be to prevent harm to the individual or to others. In contrast, the Mental Health White Paper (2002), now a bill, was, at heart, concerned with little else but compulsion. This, despite the fact that research indicates the adverse effects of hastily applied, risk-averse compulsion on service users that seriously threatens their future cooperation with would-be helpers. Yet these draconian proposals were defended on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (as authoritative a debating chamber as Parliament these days) by the Home Secretary who, at the discussion paper stage, assured us, with poorly disguised irritation, that the government would not be diverted by selfinterested professional bodies and campaigning groups. But pause here and consider two things: (1) what exactly is the purpose of a discussion paper but to draw in informed opinion? Who else exactly was expected to comment? Biscuit manufacturers? Hairdressers?; (2) why was the Home Secretary routinely defending a draft bill that would normally be seen as a health matter? Well, possibly because these proposals were the progenitors of a public order bill grafted on to a health initiative. As we go to press, an alliance against this seems to have had the intended effect, in that the government has decided just to bring forward an amending act.
