Mental health tsar pledges to amend Bill

Changes to a controversial Bill governing the treatment of the mentally ill look inevitable following comments by Louis Appleby, the Government's mental health tsar. There has been unprecedented opposition to the proposed law, including the Independent on Sunday campaign which has attracted the backing of leading specialists.

Mr Appleby, the national director for mental health, has admitted that "views have to be listened to" and "changes made" in the draft Mental Health Bill which he concedes is "complicated" and "hard to read". The Bill includes new measures to detain the mentally ill indefinitely without any crime having been committed. Psychiatrists, lawyers, mental health charities and patients have all united against the proposed reforms which they claim will deter the mentally ill from seeking treatment.

Mr Appleby said that this "strength of feeling" had to be taken "very seriously". "Views have to be listened to and changes made if that's thought to be right and I don't think there is any shame in that," he said in an interview with Community Care magazine.

"I think the overall point that there are places where the Bill can be strengthened is bound to be correct and there wouldn't have been any point in having a consultation period if we weren't then prepared to make certain changes. That's what we now have to do." This week, mental health charities will use World Mental Health Day to highlight the work they have done to remove the stigma of mental illness. However, many mental health experts fear that this work will be jeopardised by the Government's reforms because they are too broad in their definition of mental illness.

Mr Appleby said of the Mental Health Bill: "I think it's complicated and hard to read. On the issue of being clear with people and getting the message across and having proper discussions that is obviously what we need to do."

His comments come as research shows that almost two-thirds of mental health lawyers have decided to leave their jobs or are planning to quit because of poor pay and the increased demands of the Government's mental health proposals. These figures emerge from research carried out by the Mental Health Lawyers Association (MHLA) which said the erosion of patients' rights through new laws would put an "unbearable strain" on mental health lawyers.

The Lord Chancellor's Department is in charge of determining pay rates for mental health practitioners, whose average pay is £30 an hour. Peter Edwards, president of the MHLA, said proposals to reform mental health were "unworkable and unethical".

"The duty of the Government is that they have to provide a lawyer to represent the mentally ill at health tribunals," he said. "The number of these tribunals is going to mushroom and the sheer volume of work will be colossal. The entire edifice of their reform may collapse."

The Department of Health has received more than 1,000 submissions from health care professionals and pressure groups expressing their concerns about the new Bill. Their final proposals on mental health reform are expected to be announced in this year's Queen's Speech.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) said that negotiations had yet to take place with health ministers on possible changes to the Bill. However, Mike Shooter, the RCP president, said redefining the criteria for compulsory detention of patients was at the top of the list of demands from members.

He has already branded the planned legislation racist because Afro-Caribbean men face a disproportionate risk of mistaken diagnosis and imprisonment. Mr Shooter said: "We felt it was not a genuine consultation, otherwise why were our views not represented in the Bill?"