§ Mr. Woodhouseasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will propose amendments to the Mental Health Act 1959 to restore to mental hospitals, subject to appropriate safeguards, the right to detain mental patients if necessary without their consent.
§ Sir K. JosephThe powers to detain patients for treatment are based on the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency 1954-1957 and I am not persuaded that there is a need to revert to the pre-1959 position.
§ Mr. Woodhouseasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to remind local authorities of their obligation under the Mental Health Act 1959 to provide half-way houses for patients on discharge from mental hospitals.
§ Sir K. JosephThe powers and duties conferred on local authorities by Section 6 of the Mental Health Act 1959 were consolidated in the more general provisions of Section 12 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968. Local authorities were asked in a circular issued last August to submit 10-year plans for the development of their social services, including residential and other services for the mentally ill and mentally handicapped, and I shall be reviewing388W their plans shortly. The circular included planning guidelines as a basis for determining the number of residential and other places to be provided; the guidelines on services for the mentally handicapped had already been published in June 1971 in "Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped" (Cmnd. 4683). My Department will shortly be issuing a further circular giving more detailed guidance about the development of local authority services for the mentally ill.
§ Mr. Woodhouseasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will introduce legislation to require local authorities to provide information and counselling centres for relatives of mental patients.
§ Sir K. JosephLocal authorities have a duty under Section 12 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 to make arrangements for the prevention of illness, including mental disorder, and for the care and after-care of people who are or have been ill. Arrangements made under the Act may include the provision of information and counselling to relatives. I am not convinced that this is necessarily best provided by centres established exclusively for the purpose. I would expect those working in the health and social services who have responsibility for helping and treating the mentally disordered to be ready as a matter of course to give advice to relatives. Some information and counselling services available to the public generally are provided by the Samaritans and by the National Association for Mental Health, bodies which are helped financially by my Department.