The NSW Mental Health Bill 2007: implications for the provision of electroconvulsive therapy.
OBJECTIVE
The Mental Health Act in New South Wales (NSW) has recently been revised, resulting in the Mental Health Bill 2007, which has been submitted to the NSW Parliament to be passed as law. The new Bill includes some changes to the sections dealing with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), particularly for involuntary patients. The implications of these changes for the provision of ECT in these patients are examined in this paper.


CONCLUSIONS
New limits introduced in the Mental Health Bill 2007 may have potentially detrimental consequences for ECT therapy in involuntary patients and may inadvertently result in the provision of suboptimal ECT to these patients.
Loo
Colleen
C
School of Psychiatry, University of NSW, St George Hospital, and Psychiatrist, Black Dog Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia. colleen.loo@unsw.edu.au
D001315:Australia; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*