Clause 31
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
1:30 pm
Angela Browning (Deputy Chairman (Organising and Campaigning), Conservative Party; Tiverton and Honiton, Conservative)
I support what the hon. Lady has outlined. Those of us who served on the scrutiny Committee and the Standing Committee on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 had a lot of discussion about how the measures would interact with patients with mental disorders and mental health problems. On capacity, it was particularly noted that in the relevant group of patients there is often a pattern of capacity breaking down. With some mental disorders there is a cyclical nature to that, which means that advance statements would have great relevance to the patient and give them confidence in a down period, for example, that they had made their views known while they had full capacity, and that those views would be taken into account.
Another mental health issue that is perhaps not quite so applicable to physical health matters is that sometimes people lose capacity in some areas of their lives, but it might be judged that they remain able to make considered decisions in other parts of their lives. There are a lot of grey areas, and considering the way in which people’s capacity can deteriorate if they are mentally ill, I think that advance decisions would benefit people with mental disorders, particularly lifelong disorders, as many are.
I hope that I will not be out of order in discussing new clause 25. The hon. Member for Bridgend, who tabled it, might want to respond to my point. The person with whom the patient, referred to in the new clause as “P”, deposits their advance statement might change. There might be circumstances in which no obvious person is identifiable as
“primarily responsible for P’s care.”
Sometimes that is quite difficult.
I have just written to the Minister, not apropos mental health, but about a constituency case involving somebody with a learning disability who, because of his communication disorder, has had great difficulty in getting the correct treatment as a hospital in-patient for his physical problems. I seek some guidance from the Minister; no doubt it will come through, and I shall get a letter back. There are practical complications when one tries to put some things into practice. I hope that we would not be too rigid about saying “It must be this particular person”, because in some cases that person will not be evident.