{"id":3056,"date":"2023-01-18T14:54:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T14:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=3056"},"modified":"2023-01-18T14:54:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T14:54:57","slug":"landmark-mental-health-bill-receives-presidential-assent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/landmark-mental-health-bill-receives-presidential-assent\/","title":{"rendered":"Landmark Mental Health Bill Receives Presidential Assent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On January 5, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law, the Mental Health Bill. \u00a0The bill is seen as a landmark legislation by the 9<sup>th<\/sup> National Assembly. Sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe (APC: Kwara State), Chairman of the Health Committee of the Senate, the bill repeals the Lunacy Act of 1964. For human rights groups and medical practitioners, the bill represents a significant improvement on prior legal framework for mental healthcare management. It recognises current definitions of mental disorder beyond its earlier definition as lunacy and recognises the challenges that other forms of mental disorder pose to the society, including the challenges of depression, drug abuse, psychosis, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to the passage of\nthis bill, Nigeria was governed by an outdated mental health law which had\nbeen in existence since 1958. Indeed, the earliest mental health legislation in\nNigeria was the Lunacy Ordinance of 1916, which was modified as the Lunacy Act of 1958,\napplicable in the old regions. These laws were largely based on an archaic and\nnow\nrepealed Mental Health law from the United Kingdom. The new law\nrepeals the Lunacy Act 1964, which is most likely the federal equivalent of the\nLunacy Act 1958. The new Mental Health Act which addresses the shortcomings of\nthe old laws, had a long journey through the National Assembly. It was first\nintroduced in the 5<sup>th<\/sup> Assembly in 2003, then in the 6<sup>th<\/sup>\nAssembly in 2008, before reintroductions in the 7<sup>th<\/sup> Assembly in 2013\nand the 8<sup>th<\/sup> Assembly in 2016. It was finally brought back before\nlawmakers in the 9<sup>th<\/sup> Senate by Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Act\nestablishes a Department of Mental Health Services in the Federal Ministry of\nHealth, to propose national mental health policies, promote mental wellbeing,\nhealthcare services and facilitate the provision of humane care including\ntreatment and rehabilitation in a least restrictive environment, among others.\nSome functions of the Department include promoting and facilitating\ncollaboration among agencies and disciplines, and supporting the strengthening\nof community and facility linkages of mental health services; ensuring and\nguaranteeing the fundamental rights and safety of persons with mental health\nconditions, and protecting them from discrimination and stigmatisation. Others\ninclude maintaining a national directory of mental\nhealth care facilities accredited for the admission and treatment of persons\nwith mental health conditions, and conducting regular inspection of these\nfacilities to ensure compliance with the guidelines for the treatment and care\nof persons with mental health conditions. All public healthcare facilities are mandated to make\nprovision for mental health treatment according to the guidelines issued by the\nDepartment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nAct also establishes a Mental Health Fund for the implementation of its\nprovisions. The Fund will be financed by voluntary contributions from individuals,\norganisations and the private sector; monies approved by National Assembly for\npayment into the Fund; grants and monies from any other sources approved by the\nFederal Ministry of Health. The Act establishes a Mental Health Assessment\nCommittee with the objective of ensuring the protection of persons with mental\nhealth conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Act provides for the rights of persons with mental\nhealth issues, emphasizing that they shall have the same fundamental rights as their\nfellow citizens and shall not be subjected to any form of discrimination. It\nalso protects them from physical and mental abuse, exploitation, inhuman or\ndegrading treatment, etc. Ill-treatment or neglect of a person with a mental\nhealth condition or the violation of any rule or regulation in relation to the\ntreatment of such persons is now an offence. In addition, the law provides for\nequal access to work and employment opportunities, and equal remuneration for\npersons with mental health conditions. It also requires that an employer &nbsp;should assist with seeking medical advice or\ntreatment where an employee is suspected to be suffering from a mental health\ncondition severe enough to affect the employee\u2019s output. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mental health has become a huge topic in Nigeria\nin recent times. Psycho-social problems\nbrought on by economic hardship, violence and social unrest have exacerbated mental disorders. Mental Health professionals are of the opinion that the Mental Health\nAct 2021posits a positive outlook for mental healthcare in Nigeria. According\nto the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse\nand Neglect, the new law focuses on ensuring that people have better access to\nmental healthcare and makes government responsible in terms of providing mental\nhealth access, adding that it will address the issues of human rights abuse in\nthe sector. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 5, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law, the Mental Health Bill. \u00a0The bill is seen as a landmark legislation by the 9th National Assembly. Sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe (APC: Kwara State), Chairman of the Health Committee of the Senate, the bill repeals the Lunacy Act of 1964. For human rights groups [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3064,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3056\/revisions\/3064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}