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Project on mental
health legislation
Developing and implementing mental health legislation can
enable Member Countries to create a legal and regulatory framework that
enhances national mental health programmes and
provides legal recourse and protection to mentally-ill individuals who
receive sub-standard treatment and face stigmatization and
discrimination. Currently, few SEAR
Member Countries have developed any mental health legislation that may
promote these goals and some Member Countries rely upon antiquated
legislation that actually impedes public health strategies seeking to treat
mentally ill persons, while other Member Countries have no mental health
legislation.
To provide assistance to SEAR Member Countries in
developing mental health legislation, an inter-country workshop was held in
2001 to review each SEAR Member Country’s current mental health legislation
and discussed common international standards that each Member Country would
like to incorporate into its mental health law. Health & Behaviour
unit in collaboration with Mental Health Unit WHO Headquarters has developed
a programme on assisting Member Countries in updating/developing modern
mental health legislation, policies and services.
Currently, H&B has conducted a thorough examination of
the historical evolution and current implementation of Indian mental health
legislation to identify strengths and weaknesses in the Indian legal
framework for mental health services.
Technical Meetings
 Meeting The Needs Of
Persons With Mental Disorders Through Legislation, Proceedings Of A Regional
Workshop On Metal Health Legislation, Galle, Srilanka, 24-27 May 2001 [PDF
133 KB]
A
Systematic Approach to Developing and Implementing Mental Health Legislation
– Report of a Regional Meeting of Experts New Delhi, India, 6-8 December 2004
[PDF 106 KB]
Project on mental
health policy and service development
Modules and software, developed by WHO Headquarters, which
serves as resource material for sensitizing senior policy-makers and health
professionals, have been adapted for use in Regional countries. In
collaboration with WR India, a workshop was held in Ranchi, India,
in November 2003 in which mental health professionals and senior planners
from many of the states of India
participated. This workshop will be followed by national level workshops in
other Member Countries.
Sensitizing senior policy-makers and planners about mental
health policy and services is an important step in assigning appropriate
priority to mental health and also to develop services in keeping with recent
advances in medical science.
Related Links
Several member states are developing/updating their mental
health policy.
India
Indonesia
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Sri-Lanka
Mental
Health Policy – WHO/HQ
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