The Mental Health Protection and Promotion Bill was passed in the National Assembly on Monday and will replace the archaic Mental Hospital Ordinance Cap.140.
In his opening statement, Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, pointed out that many communities across Guyana still do not have access to mental health care and the bill will ensure that this increases.
He said that the government is planning to integrate mental health services into Guyana’s primary health care system. In addition, plans to introduce telemedicine will see patients being able to have access to expert consultations with psychiatrists in the country.
Telemedicine is the delivery of healthcare from a distance using electronic information and technology, such as computers, cameras, videoconferencing, satellites, wireless communications, and the Internet.
Anthony also described the Mental Health Ordinance of 1930 as outdated and said that it allowed discrimination against persons with mental health issues because they are seen as threats to society. .
“The way that we do mental health in Guyana, we need to overhaul the entire system and this bill would provide that overarching architecture to allow us to do the overhaul that is necessary to bring the practice of psychiatry in Guyana into the modern world,” Anthony said.
He added, “The Standards that this bill allows us to set would pull us out from the dark ages of how psychiatry was practiced back in the 1930s, to the modern world, and therefore this bill is essential for us to move forward and to modernize the practice of psychiatry and to protect our patients who are affected by mental health disorder.”
The bill’s purpose is to provide for the mental health care of persons suffering from mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of those persons during the delivery of mental health care. Additionally, the bill “seeks to promote the mental health and wellbeing of persons in Guyana and to ensure that all persons receive the best mental health care.”
Moreover, the bill also seeks to reduce the effects of mental illness on the family and community.
The enactment of the bill will provide the requisite framework to address the provision of high-quality care as well as improved access to care and protection. With nine parts, the bill mandates the government to implement policies and measures to ensure the objectives of the new legislation are realized.
Part one of the bill speaks to preliminary matters while part two imposes the obligation on the Minister of Health to ensure that policies and measures in relation to mental health are implemented in a manner that ensures the accessibility of specialized services as well as the overall promotion of human rights of those suffering from mental illnesses. Part two of the bill also speaks to the provision of equitable care to all in need.
The third part of the bill speaks to the determination of mental illness and the capacity of persons with mental illness to make mental health care and treatment decisions and consent. It provides for mental illness to be diagnosed in accordance with nationally or internationally accepted medical standards. Under part two of the bill, every person is deemed to be mentally capable and no treatment shall be administered without the informed consent of that person.
Part four addresses the human rights of persons suffering from mental illness.
“…which includes respecting the dignity, autonomy and privacy of persons with mental illness, the right to mental health care and mental health services of an acceptable and good quality, the right to live and be treated in the community, the right to access justice, the right to information and the prohibition against discrimination and abuse,” the explanatory memorandum states.
Anthony noted that while the bill brings a modern approach to the way mental health patients are treated, he said, it must be complemented by cultural and societal changes.
“This vicious cycle of how we perceive people, how people do not have access to care and treatment can lead to more discrimination, to more stigmatization and violation of people’s fundamental human rights, very often persons with mental health issues can be denied their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and this is a serious matter,” he said.
The minister noted too sometimes “institutional indifference” can result in physical, psychological, and sometimes even sexual abuse of persons with mental health disorders.
He said the inclusion of part four of the bill relating to human rights aligns with all the major international instruments relating to the rights of people with mental health disorders.
The main APNU+AFC opposition boycotted Monday’s sitting of Parliament.
