Memorandum by the Law Reform Committee
of the Bar Council of England and Wales
1. The Law Reform Committee of the Bar Council
for England and Wales welcomes the call for evidence by Sub-Committee
G of the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union
and the opportunity to comment on the European Commission Green
Paper on EU Mental Health Strategy.
2. The Law Reform Committee also appreciates
the extended deadline of 5 June 2006 given to it to respond (rather
than the original deadline of 22 May 2006).
3. The European Commission Green Paper is
a consultative document designed to launch a policy debate about
the relevance of mental health for the EU, the need for a strategy
at EU level and possible priorities. It acknowledges that, while
some public health aspects of mental health would fall under Community
competence, others would be the exclusive competence of Member
States.
4. The Commission point out in the Green
Paper that:
— Mental ill health affects every fourth
citizen of the EU, costs the EU an estimated 3-4 per cent of GDP,
mainly through lost productivity, and causes many suicides.
— Mental disorders are a leading cause
of early retirement and disability pensions.
— Mental ill health and conduct and
behavioural disorders in childhood incur costs for the social,
educational, criminal and justice systems.
— Further intangible costs concern
how society treats mentally ill or disabled persons who still
experience social exclusion, stigmatisation, discrimination or
non-respect of their fundamental rights and dignity.
5. Against that background, the Commission
states that mental health is an important issue for the European
Community because of:
— the contribution that good mental
health of the population can make to some of the EU's strategic
policy objectives;
— the role of the Community to encourage
and support cooperation between Member States and to address inequalities
between them; and
— the obligation for the Community
to contribute to a high level of human health protection through
all its policies and activities.
6. The Green Paper suggests that an EU-level
strategy on mental health could add value by:
(1) creating a framework for exchange and
cooperation between Member States;
(2) helping to increase the coherence of
actions in different policy sectors; and
(3) opening a platform for involving stakeholders,
including patient and civil society organisations, in building
solutions.
7. Among the options for action outlined
by the Green Paper are:
— promoting mental health and addressing
mental health though preventive action;
— promoting the social inclusion of
mentally ill or disabled people and protecting their fundamental
rights and dignity; and
— improving information and knowledge
on mental health in the EU.
8. Sub-Committee G of the House of Lords
is seeking views on:
— whether an EU strategy on mental
health would be appropriate;
— if so, what elements it might contain;
and
— how it might complement and add value
to the strategies of Member States and the activities of the World
Health Organisation and other international bodies.
9. The LRC believes the EU Strategy on Mental
Health set out in the Green Paper is appropriate. It both supports
and advances the World Health Organisation (WHO) Declaration and
Action Plan.
10. The LRC notes that a number of recent
European Community initiatives on mental health have arisen independently
and suggests that—to prevent the development of conflicting
programmes and consequential dissipated effort—a single
integrating strategy with strong co-ordination would make progress
in this area more effective.
11. There will always be different mental
health needs within specific target populations (such as children,
adolescents, adults of working age and older adults) and whatever
strategy is adopted it should reflect the increasing age distribution
of the population.
12. The LRC commends the considerable effort
which has been devoted to reform of Mental Health legislation
in the United Kingdom.
13. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 will shortly
come into force.
14. The LRC notes, however, that the details
of the reform of the Mental Health Act 1983—contained in
the detailed provisions of the Mental Health Bill 2004—remain
unclear since the Government abandoned the Bill at the end of
March 2006.
15. The Mental Health Bill 2004 and the
Mental Capacity Act 2005 were part of a unified package of significant
reform in this area. After eight years of preliminary legislative
work on this topic all that is currently known is that some elements
of the Bill will be grafted on to other Department of Health legislation
expected in October or November 2006.
16. Until the final detail of that proposed
legislation is available it is difficult to measure how elements
of the EU Green Paper are or may be reflected in this proposed
legislation.
17. For this reason the LRC would appreciate
the opportunity for further comment or the giving of direct evidence
to the House of Lords Sub-Committee G, if appropriate, when details
of this domestic legislation are available.
| 
