Mental Healthcare Act 2017
Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Mental Healthcare Act 2017 is a rights-based law on mental health. It gives every person a right to access mental health care. It also lets a person make an advance directive, a written statement made in advance about how they want to be treated if they later become mentally ill. Under s.115, a person who attempts suicide is presumed to be under severe stress. The aim is to treat such a person with care, not punishment. In effect, this decriminalised attempted suicide.
Example
Suppose a young person survives a suicide attempt. Because of s.115, the law presumes they were under severe stress. The state's focus shifts to giving them care and rehabilitation instead of prosecuting them for a crime.
Don't confuse with
- Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016: this law covers 21 disabilities, including some mental conditions, and deals with reservation and accessibility. The Mental Healthcare Act deals with the right to treatment, advance directives and how attempted suicide is handled.
Related concepts
- UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016
- Benchmark disability
- Accessible India Campaign
- Rajive Raturi case
- HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act 2017
- NALSA case
- Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019
- National Council for Transgender Persons
- Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007