New Mental Health Coaliation secures key improvements to mental health bill
Published: 24 August 2007
A coalition representing some 85% of NHS mental health staff, today welcomed amendments tabled by the Government to revise conditions relating to Supervised Community Treatment orders in the Mental Health Bill.
Following discussions with the Department of Health last week the coalition backed the move to ensure that conditions relating to Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) will now be directly linked to the health implications for services users placed, rather than the originally proposed conditions that placed a greater emphasis on behavioural restrictions.
Following positive discussions with the Department of Health on a number of crucial areas of the Bill, the coalition urged Members of Parliament to support the Government amendment at its crucial Report and Third Reading stages.
The coalition also called on Government to support the amendment tabled by Chris Bryant MP about therapeutic benefit of treatment. The Coalition argues that it is imperative that any measures introduced by the new Mental Health Bill are fit for the 21st century and ensure that no-one will be detained under the Mental Health Act unless there is some real therapeutic benefit in the treatments available to them.
Brian Rogers, Professional Officer, Unite-Mental Health Nurses Association said:
"These are very real and positive steps forward. CTOs have generally been seen as punitive and the coalition hopes that the moves made by Government will ensure that they and other provisions within the Bill are linked to a positive health gain".
Professor Peter Kinderman, British Psychological Society said:
“The Government is clearly now listening to those professionals who are committed to modern, person centred mental health care. If the Department of Health is able to support these amendments, Community Treatment Orders would be used only for the genuine therapeutic benefit of services users. We strongly welcome these very positive developments.”
Julia Scott, Chief Executive, College of Occupational Therapists said:
“We are now in the 21st century and it is quite clear that in order to deliver safe and effective care, we need legislation that supports the right service at the right time. By backing the coalition's proposals about CTOs we are a step closer to mental health care that service users truly deserve.”
Dr Peter Carter, General Secretary, RoyalCollege of Nursing said:
“We are pleased that Government has engaged with our coalition and taken on board the views of our members particularly on conditions for Community Treatment Orders (CTOs). The RCN has always maintained that CTOs should only apply to a carefully defined minority of patients meeting explicit criteria. This amendment helps to make the criteria for conditions clear and is a great step forward for the Bill”
Gail Adams, Head of Nursing at UNISON said:
“Service users have waited a very long time for these changes and we believe that the new Bill will have a better chance of delivering what service users want, need and deserve. From the beginning protecting patient safety and rights have been our key objective as well as making sure that care is managed and delivered by the best person for the job. There is no one size fits all solution to mental health care and we need a wide variety of professionals to meet the varied needs of patients.”
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