イギリスでは「メンタルヘルス法案」というものが審議されています。これは、暴力的な傾向や異常行動の兆候を示す個人に対し、治療を打ち切ったり拒んだりする場合には身柄を拘束することも出来るという法案で、イギリスで近年精神を病んだ人による犯罪が激増していることを受けて提唱されました。この法案が可決された場合、英国内では14000人が影響を受けると言われています。
Mental Health Bill 'has balance'
The government's Mental Health Bill strikes the "right balance" between patient safeguards and protecting the public, the health secretary has said.
Patricia Hewitt told the Commons it was "essential" to ensure discharged patients continued taking medication.
The bill, which will allow people to be held against their will even if they have not committed a crime, has been attacked by the Tories as "punitive".
They and the Lib Dems say the plan would stop sufferers seeking help.
'Stigma'
Ministers want to allow people with severe or violent personality disorders to be confined if they are judged to be a threat to themselves or others.
Ms Hewitt told the Commons: "Modern medicine and clinical practice has shifted the whole focus of care into the community and the law needs to follow.
"The bill would enable a patient who is detained in hospital to be released under supervised community treatment, enabling some patients to be discharged into the community earlier than would otherwise have been the case."
This would be a "real benefit to themselves and often their carers as well", she added.
Ms Hewitt also said: "I believe this bill strikes the right balance ... between modernising the legislation in line with the development of clinical practice, improving patient safeguards and protecting more people from harm."
