Minister for Mental Health, Mary Butler TD, has welcomed the restoration of the Mental Health Bill 2024 to the Oireachtas legislative programme.
The move means that the legislation will proceed to consideration at Committee Stage in the Dáil following its completion of Second Stage last September.
Minister Butler said, “I’m very happy to be able to continue the work of the last number of years to progress this vitally important Bill. We need to enact this legislation in order to modernise mental health legislation and to put in place the necessary safeguards to ensure the rights of people with mental health difficulties are protected in the decades to come.
“The Bill will also benefit all people who access a wide range of mental health services by introducing, for the first time, a comprehensive system of registration and regulation of community mental health services, including all community CAMHS.”
The new Bill will provide for, among other things:
- An updated involuntary admission and detention process for people with severe mental health difficulties, including a revised set of criteria for admission.
- An overhauled approach to consent to treatment for involuntarily admitted people.
- An expansion of the Mental Health Commission’s regulatory function to include all community mental health residences and services, including all community CAMHS.
- Closer alignment with the principles of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Acts 2015 and 2022.
- Stronger safeguards for people accessing inpatient treatment.
- The care and treatment of children and young people, including provisions to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to consent to or refuse mental health treatment.
