Mental Health and Public Health Law

Unlike persons with most other health conditions, those who experience acute mental illness can be subject to particular applications of state power – for instance, they can be apprehended, detained and treated by the state against their will. Such laws are specific to mental illness and set out the circumstances in which treatment and care may be delivered, including without people’s consent and utilising coercion. Mental health legislation has the clear potential to encroach upon human rights. These sensitivities arise because mental health legislation encompasses both therapeutic objectives and public safety measures. In this context, the potential for the powers of the state to be misused deliberately or inadvertently is significant.