Independent report

Modernising the Mental Health Act � final report from the independent review

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983 has set out recommendations for government on how the Act and associated practice needs to change.

Documents

Details

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp final report sets out recommendations covering 4 principles that the review believes should underpin the reformed Act:

  • choice and autonomy â€� ensuring service usersâ€� views and choices are respected
  • least restriction â€� ensuring the Act’s powers are used in the least restrictive way
  • therapeutic benefit â€� ensuring patients are supported to get better, so they can be discharged from the Act
  • people as individuals â€� ensuring patients are viewed and treated as rounded individuals

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp review looked at:

  • rising rates of detention under the Act
  • the disproportionate number of people from black and minority ethnic groups detained under the Act
  • processes that are out of step with a modern mental health care system

This page includes Easy Read and summary versions of the report plus an analysis of the survey data. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp summary version also includes an illustrative guide to the review’s recommended changes.

Updates to this page

Published 6 December 2018
Last updated 14 February 2019 show all updates
  1. 'Modernising the Mental Health Act: increasing choice, reducing compulsion' has been updated: table 1 of Annex A has had an error corrected on the circumstances in which category 3 treatment can be given, annex B has been replaced with a corrected version, and a small number of typos have been corrected. 'Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983: supporting documents' has been added.

  2. Added summary version of the report.

  3. First published.

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