scholarly journals Newly enacted mental health law in Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ershadul Karim ◽  
Sabuj Shaikh

Mental health problems are almost ignored in Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The lack of overall health literacy and human resources due to an ineffectively updated legal and regulatory framework, coupled with very limited but misused budget allocation, are some of the factors responsible for this. The country's Constitution recognises the importance of public health and stipulates the improvement of public health as an important primary duty of the state. Nevertheless, it is often compromised or neglected in favour of other socioeconomic development priorities. The Lunacy Act 1912 was recently repealed and substituted by the Mental Health Act 2018 to fill in various gaps in mental health law. This is a welcome development, but there remain limitations and scope for further improvement. We highlight some important provisions of this newly enacted law, identify some limitations and propose some issues for consideration in future policy reform.

2021 ◽  
pp. 34-52
Author(s):  
Kay Wilson

Chapter 2 examines the historical development of mental health law in England (which is similar to the rest of the common law world, including America, Canada, and Australia) and uses that history to consider the justification, purpose, and need for mental health law from Ancient Greece to the present. Contrary to the claims of abolitionists that mental health law has essentially always stayed the same, it demonstrates a history of continuous legal and systemic reform in mental health law. Rather than an over-zealous and interfering state keen to exercise social control over persons with mental impairment, it instead depicts a state which for the most part reluctantly only became involved in the care of persons with mental health problems when informal care by family and friends failed or was non-existent, to prevent abuses by private operators, and as an incident of its administration of the criminal law. When set against the background of the fashions, cycles, and recurring themes of mental health law, the call of abolition can be conceptualized as simply the latest fad in its evolution. Further, many of the issues which arise from mental health problems will continue to exist even without mental health law. Mental health law can be positive and negative, including defining and protecting rights and allocating resources. The chapter cautions against being too optimistic about the promises of sweeping revolutionary changes which have never really delivered (deinstitutionalization or the ‘abolition’ of the asylum being the most poignant example), in favour of solid incremental change.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S337-S337
Author(s):  
I. Georgieva ◽  
C. Lauvrud ◽  
R. Almvik ◽  
R. Whittington

IntroductionPrevious research illustrated that the laws regulating involuntary placement and treatment of persons with mental health problems are very diverse across countries: procedures for involuntary commitment and stakeholders involved in the initiation and decision making vary across countries; most laws include criteria of danger/risk, which take various forms in EU Member States’ legal frameworks, while the need for treatment in the best interests of the patient is sufficient to detain individuals in other countries, etc.ObjectivesThis study will compare the opinions of professionals and family members about the operation of the National mental health law regulating forcibly admission and treatment of psychiatric patients in ten countries: Ireland, Iceland, UK, Romania, Slovenia, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Norway and India.AimsTo gain insights into stakeholders’ satisfaction with the operation of their national legislation and to compare the effectiveness and acceptability of different legislative processes across countries. Such scientific findings are needed in order to improve and harmonize legal practices, and to enhance fundamental rights protection of persons with mental health problems, which eventually could result in a lower rate of compulsory admissions.MethodsA short anonymous questionnaire consisting of 9 items was developed, using the online software Survey Monkey. It was distributed to representative samples via e-mail to psychiatrists, general practitioners, acute and community mental health nurses, tribunal members, guards and family members in each collaborating country. The levels of agreement/disagreement were measured on a Likert- scale.Results/ConclusionsThe study's results and conclusions will be presented at the conference.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-54
Author(s):  
Tony Zigmond

A set of principles which might underpin mental health law across the world is discussed, and one particular difficulty is highlighted.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 93-94
Author(s):  
David Jimenez ◽  
Christina Alejandrina Eguiguren ◽  
Dominic Dougall ◽  
Bartłomiej Pliszka ◽  
Ian Hall

Mental health law in Peru is developing. The Peruvian Constitution enshrines important human rights principles in relation to people with mental health problems but the enactment of such principles into national legislation is very patchy. This means that people with mental health problems, especially those admitted to hospital, may not receive optimum care and may be at risk of having their human rights breached. In this article we consider how far the current national legislation meets these constitutional rights and what the legislation that is in development may ultimately achieve.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Kay Wilson

Chapter 1 introduces the key question asked by the book: whether mental health law should be abolished or reformed and defines all the key terms (e.g. mental health law, mental impairment, involuntary detention and treatment, voluntary treatment, abolition and reform, etc). It puts mental health law into its wider social context pointing out that while at least 20 per cent of the community in any given year and 50 per cent in their lifetime have a mental health problem, mental health law only applies to a relatively small number of persons with severe mental health problems who are medically assessed to be at risk of harming themselves or others. It sets out the background to the fierce controversy about the future of mental health law during the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) negotiations and since its entry into force in 2008. It explains the conceptual framework for the book being human rights treaty interpretation and the jurisprudential or ethical analysis consistent with Ronald Dworkin of three core CRPD and human rights concepts—dignity (including autonomy), equality, and participation—to create the ‘interpretive compass.’ It discusses the social model of disability, the medical model, the human rights model, and the interactive model. It defines the scope of the book in that it excludes consideration of mental health specific criminal law doctrines like fitness to plead and the insanity defence and clarifies that the focus is on mental health law rather than other forms of substitute decision-making like guardianship. It explains the structure of the book.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1322-1327
Author(s):  
Sanjay Kumar Bhatnagar ◽  
Rajesh Kumar Sharma ◽  
Dinesh Chandra Sharma

The world was confronted with an illness 'COVID-19', caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This novel coronavirus is highly contagious and in just a few months has become a serious threat to human health all over the world. It was declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the end of January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020. In addition to the public health challenges, this pandemic has created another parallel pandemic of mental health problems. There are many relations of doing panic and getting the disease and the pos- sibility of Mansik Bhavas like fear (Bhaya), anger (Krodha), grief (Shoka) and not follow Sadvrutta can be the cause or precipitating factor of infection to any person. Ayurveda and modern point of view agree to the statement that different Mansik Bhavas like Bhaya, Krodha, Shoka and not follow Sadvrutta etc. can lead to or can act as Hetu for many diseases like COVID-19 etc. and hence there is the existence of a relation between these Mansik Bhavas and Vyadhi Utpatti. Furthermore, the existing mental health problems have also been seen to exacerbate owing to this pandemic. The mental health problems are both seen among the community members and the healthcare pro- viders who are at the continuous forefront of service provision in healthcare settings. The best way of preventing COVID-19 infection is by enhancing an individual's body immunity. Some of the principles could be useful in mitigating the mental health issues that the current world is grappling with owing to COVID‐19. In this review article, we will understand the Role of Mansik Bhavas on immunity to COVID-19 with different references given in Ayurvedic texts, modern texts and articles. Keywords: Ayurveda, COVID-19, Mansik bhavas (Bhaya, Krodha, Shoka and Sadvrutta), Immunity.


2021 ◽  
Vol p5 (5) ◽  
pp. 2976-2981
Author(s):  
Sanjay Kumar Bhatnagar ◽  
Rajesh Kumar Sharma ◽  
Dinesh Chandra Sharma

The world was confronted with an illness 'COVID-19', caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This novel coronavirus is highly contagious and in just a few months has become a serious threat to human health all over the world. It was declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the end of January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020. In addition to the public health challenges, this pandemic has created another parallel pandemic of mental health problems. There are many relations of doing panic and getting the disease and the pos- sibility of Mansik Bhavas like fear (Bhaya), anger (Krodha), grief (Shoka) and not follow Sadvrutta can be the cause or precipitating factor of infection to any person. Ayurveda and modern point of view agree to the statement that different Mansik Bhavas like Bhaya, Krodha, Shoka and not follow Sadvrutta etc. can lead to or can act as Hetu for many diseases like COVID-19 etc. and hence there is the existence of a relation between these Mansik Bhavas and Vyadhi Utpatti. Furthermore, the existing mental health problems have also been seen to exacerbate owing to this pandemic. The mental health problems are both seen among the community members and the healthcare pro- viders who are at the continuous forefront of service provision in healthcare settings. The best way of preventing COVID-19 infection is by enhancing an individual's body immunity. Some of the principles could be useful in mitigating the mental health issues that the current world is grappling with owing to COVID‐19. In this review article, we will understand the Role of Mansik Bhavas on immunity to COVID-19 with different references given in Ayurvedic texts, modern texts and articles. Keywords: Ayurveda, COVID-19, Mansik bhavas (Bhaya, Krodha, Shoka and Sadvrutta), Immunity.


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