Transforming Aotearoa’s mental health law

January 2022

The Government accepted the recommendation from He Ara Oranga, the report from the 2018 Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry, to repeal and replace the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992. The development of a new mental health law for Aotearoa is a once in a generation opportunity to reframe our response to mental health, providing a powerful lever to reconstruct our approach to supporting people with severe mental distress based on best practice, human rights and appropriate resourcing.

In our submission to the Ministry of Health we make a number of recommendations, including:

• The complete and immediate end to seclusion practices/solitary confinement under the new law.
• The absolute minimisation of compulsory treatment and restraint, reducing these practices to the barest of minimums by a date no later than ten years from the new legislation passing into law.
• A legal requirement for a plan to implement supported decision-making and the full range of service development and practice changes necessary to enable the absolute minimisation of compulsory treatment and restraint over 10 years.