The New Mental Health Act – What’s it all about? is a booklet produced by the Scottish Executive and written by Sandra MacDougall, Legal Officer, Scottish Association for Mental Health.

The booklet is a short introduction to the New Mental Health Act and is free of charge. You can also download a copy in .pdf format right now.

A new law, the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, was passed by the Scottish Parliament in March 2003 and came into effect in October 2005.

The new Act covers issues like:

• when you can be taken into hospital against your will
• when you can be given treatment against your will
• what your rights are
• safeguards to make sure your rights are protected

This booklet looks at some of these issues in more detail.