The law and mental illness

I recently attended a workshop on rights for the mentally ill organized by Bapu trust and gained a refreshingly unique (and much needed) human rights perspective to mental health which should have been at the core of my involvement with patients. It served as quite an eye opener about the subtleties of power play in psychiatric care that resulted in human rights violation; I plan to address these in a future post. More importantly, I came to know that India has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and this convention shall come in effect in India from May 14th, 2008. I recommend that you go through the CRPD here. The CRPD is unique as it takes the person affected by the disability as the pivotal person whose opinions matter over and above the opinions of the professional treating the affected person. While people affected with disability cannot move court under the CRPD, it can be used to humanize care and better mental health facilities. So here's to the hope of a better tomorrow!