ALLIANCE responds to the Scottish Mental Health Law Review

The ALLIANCE welcomes announcement of next steps towards mental health law reform but urges action is needed.

The ALLIANCE has welcomed the publication of the Scottish Government’s response to the Scottish Mental Health Law Review, but urged that action needs to be taken quickly to implement changes.

In its response, the Scottish Government agreed that:

• Mental health and incapacity laws need to be updated to make sure they fit with human rights.

• People need more support to be able to make decisions for themselves, and that acting without a person’s consent should only be done to stop a person hurting themselves or others, and if nothing else has worked.

• There is a need for greater focus and effort to reduce inequalities in how people experience systems and access their rights, given that a person’s individual and protected characteristics continue to have a significant effect on their mental health.

• Because of the number of actions needed to be undertaken, that the changes should take place in stages, with some happening soon, and some taking up to 10 years to deliver.

There are a number of areas from the Review that the Scottish Government felt need more work to develop, due to feedback from people with lived experience and organisations:

• Changing the definition of ‘mental disorder’
• Replacing Significantly Impaired Decision Making Ability (SIDMA) and capacity tests
• How we can make sure that the law works for everyone so that people with a learning disability, autistic people and people with other neurodivergent conditions have their rights upheld in the same way as other people who are treated under the Act.
• If there should be just one law for mental health and capacity in the future
• How to improve the law when treating or caring for people who haven’t given their consent to receive the treatment, care or support

Commenting, Sara Redmond, Chief Officer of Development at the ALLIANCE said:

“The publication of the Scottish Government’s response to the Mental Health Law Review (the Scott Review) is a welcome step on the long road towards plans to modernise the law around mental health.

The ALLIANCE was heavily involved throughout the review to ensure that the voices of people with lived experience were being fully considered.

The review’s focus on making sure that human rights underpin mental health law is particularly welcome, and it is encouraging that the Scottish Government plans to develop proposals with this in mind.

It is positive that the Scottish Government has chosen not to follow the review’s recommendation that learning disability, autism, and neurodiversity in mental health law continue to be included in mental health law. This has been strongly criticized by our members SCLD, People First and the National Autistic Society, and we welcome the recognition that this area needs further work.

There is much to do to implement the changes proposed, not all of which can come quickly. Several separate workstreams have been identified, all of these on important areas.

People want to see change quickly, and will want to see noticeable progress in months, not years. With an increasing number of people living with mental health conditions, it is important that short term priorities are implemented quickly.”

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