Six Labour MPs have tabled an important amendment to the UK Government’s Mental Health Amending Bill that could make significant progress towards preventing patients from receiving treatment where it has no therapeutic benefit.
The group of six MPs who tabled the amendment includes two Welsh MPs, Chris Bryant and Madeleine Moon, who have previously met Hafal to discuss patients’ and families’ concerns about the Mental Health Bill.
The wording of the amendment makes it clear that any mention of medical treatment in the new mental health legislation must refer “to treatment the purpose of which is to alleviate or prevent a worsening of the disorder, its symptoms or manifestations.”
Mental health campaigners including Hafal have argued that the ‘appropriate treatment’ test proposed by the Government is too vague and that if a person is detained for treatment, that treatment must provide a therapeutic benefit to the individual.
To read the amendment, click here