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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Government to ban tonsuring of mentally ill, patients to wear their own clothes -Kounteya Sinha

Government to ban tonsuring of mentally ill, patients to wear their own clothes -Kounteya Sinha

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published Published on Sep 16, 2012   modified Modified on Sep 16, 2012
-The Times of India

Compulsory tonsuring, a common practice on patients of mental illnesses, is all set to be banned.

When admitted in any mental institute, such patients will wear their personal clothes and not be forced to wear uniforms provided by the establishment. Now, menstrual care of women mental illness patients will be taken care by the institute

Mental homes will need to have facilities for leisure, recreation, education and religious practices for patients. A mental health establishment can also not force inmates to undertake work they do not wish to do. Patients will also have to be paid an "appropriate remuneration for the work when undertaken".

With one in four families likely to have at least one member with a behavioral or mental disorder in the country, the new Mental Healthcare Bill includes some patient-friendly provisions.

A health ministry official told TOI, "We have received public comments on the draft bill. We are ready with the Bill. We aim to present it during the winter session of Parliament. It is an all in all patient-friendly Bill."

The World Health Organization recently said, "Of all disabilities, severe mental illness is associated with the highest rates of unemployment: up to 90%. People with mental health conditions often have their human rights violated. They are often denied civil and political rights such as the right to marry." According to Section 53 of the draft Bill on "restraints and seclusions," physical restraint or seclusion of any patient may only be used when it is the only means available to prevent imminent harm to person concerned or to others.

The medical officer or psychiatrist in charge of the mental health establishment shall now be responsible for ensuring that the method, justification for its imposition and the duration of the restraint or seclusion are immediately recorded in the person's medical notes.

India is also pushing for a complete ban of electro-convulsive therapy without the use of muscle relaxants and anesthesia, electro-convulsive therapy for minors, sterilization of men or women, when such sterilization is intended as a treatment for mental illness. Patients can no more be chained like it happens now in several mental institutions.

In the Erwadi tragedy in 2001, over 20 people with mental illness were charred to death after a fire swept through an institute in which they were chained to their beds. The draft Bill for the first time calls for the setting up of a Mental Health Review Commission within three months of the Act coming into force to exercise the powers.

The Commission's president has to be of the level of a HC judge. The panel will also have to have two members who are mental health professionals of whom one has to be a psychiatrist. Two members shall also have to be persons with mental illness or caregivers.

The Times of India, 16 September, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Government-to-ban-tonsuring-of-mentally-ill-patients-to-wear-their-own-clothes/articleshow/16416658.cms


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