A commentary on of the new mental health act for the Maltese Islands

Abstract

Legal notice 276, published in September 2013, has set out the time windows for the implementation of the Mental Health Act, which was approved by parliament in 2012. The changes are expected to be rolled out over a period of one year, with the totality of the Act being in force by 10th October 2014. The first set of changes, implemented last November, brings in effect the first half of the provisions of the Mental Health Act. Overall the proposed Mental Health Act is much improved on the previous Act; it reads well and brings the law up to date with modern psychiatry practice. At first glance the Maltese Mental Health Act seems to stem from the basis of the UK 1983 Mental Health Act as amended in 2007, although the authors are not familiar with other EU Mental Health Acts, therefore they could not comment on whether there are resemblances to other Acts. In this article, the authors will discuss and make comments on some of the seminal parts of the new Mental Health Act.