Public Health and Mental Health Law

Public health law encompasses the myriad of laws and regulations that support public health objectives. There are many laws of general application that are relevant to the maintenance of good health and mental health in the population. This chapter concerns specific laws that regulate the care and treatment of people with acute mental health problems. Mental health law is generally described as having the dual purpose of ensuring appropriate care and treatment for people experiencing acute mental health conditions, on one hand, and protecting the public from extreme or dangerous behaviour on the other. How such legislation should be framed is currently the subject to intense national and international debates. This chapter elucidates those tensions by examining five salient features of mental health law: (1) the civil commitment criteria; (2) the regulation of seclusion, physical restraint and chemical restraint; (3) the regulation of special psychiatric treatment such as psychosurgery and electroconvulsive therapy( ECT); (4) the circumstances in which compulsory treatment is provided in the community; and (5) the legal oversight mechanisms deployed to ensure the legality of decision and action undertaken by practitioners in the mental health system.