The 2007 Mental Health Act brings some key changes to how the law operates in this area. The changes are active now as they began on 3rd November 2008.
There are many changes, some of these are key areas including:
- the introduction of supervised community treatment,
- new conditions for the use of compulsion and
changed roles for health professionals in using compulsory powers
The statutory right to advocacy was also in the Act but that will not be implemented in England until April 2009.
The 2007 Mental Health Act is a new act but it works by amending key parts of the 1983 Mental Health Act, it does not replace it.
The changes in detail are in the PDF document on this page.
There are many websites with useful information and comments for user groups across the UK.