Mount Carmel Hospital will not accept social cases if patients did not have mental health problems.
Over the years, children and teens from troubled backgrounds have been sent to the psychiatric hospital as there are no services to cater for such patients.
The new Mental Health Act, still in draft form, would no longer allow this, explained Ray Xerri, the director of special initiatives within the Health Department.
When contacted, Dolores Gauci, chief executive of the Richmond Foundation, said the new part of the law was needed because no one should be admitted to Mount Carmel unless they had a psychiatric problem that required them to stay in a hospital. She confirmed that there were cases of children with behavioural problems who were sent to Mount Carmel. In the case of adults, the recent practice was not to admit them unless there was a psychiatric reason.
However, once a person is admitted and allowed to go home on hospital leave (when they were not yet completely discharged), the risk of them being recalled for social reasons is higher because they were on the hospital books.
Ms Gauci said she knew of people who were admitted to Mount Carmel many decades ago, because of a minor crime or promiscuity, and spent their lives at the hospital. She questioned whether the law would apply to such people – victims of the old system – and stressed the need to inject funding into community care.
Speaking during a business breakfast, Dr Xerri gave an overview of the draft that would now be discussed in Parliament. The long-awaited law will replace the antiquated 1976 legislation, based on the 1959 British Mental Health Act. Dr Xerri said that, for the first time, involuntary treatment –forced upon patients with serious conditions for their benefit – would be able to take place in the community. Patients would be able to receive treatment at home if they met the criteria.
A commissioner would be appointed and the patient-centred law gives the patient the right to be involved in drawing up the care plan and stresses professional accountability. It also obliges the courts to inform the commissioner when a person is interdicted.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Community Care, Mario Galea said the new law looked beyond the mental health problems and focused on the person’s rights and needs.
The Prime Minister’s wife, Kate Gonzi, closed the event and said the new law was a “ray of hope” in the field of mental health.