MENTAL HEALTH ACT

to provide for the promotion and protection of the rights of persons with mental illness, mental disorder, mental impairment or mental disability; to establish the National Mental Health Council and provide for its functions; provide for mental health services in correctional facilities; give effect to certain provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Principles for the protection of persons with mental illness and the improvement of mental care General Assembly Resolution 46/119 of 17th December, 1991 and other international human rights instruments to which Zambia is a State Party; repeal the Mental Disorders Act, 1949; and provide for matters connected with, or incidental to, the foregoing.

[11th April, 2019]

Act 6 of 2019.

PART I
PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS

1. Short title

This Act may be cited as the Mental Health Act.

2. Interpretation

In this Act unless the context otherwise requires—

"Board" means the Board of the Council constituted under section 11;

"child" has the meaning assigned to the word in the Constitution;

"Council" means the National Mental Health Council established under section 8;

"community leader" means a civil society leader, chief, headperson, minister of religion or any person of good standing in a community;

"community mental health service" means a mental health service within a community;

"correctional centre" means an institution where a mental patient who commits an offence is held in custody for treatment and rehabilitation;

"court" means a court of competent jurisdiction;

"discrimination" has the meaning assigned to the word in the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2012;

"emergency" includes a situation where there is immediate and imminent danger to the health and safety of a person or others and it is demonstrated that the time required to comply with substantive procedures would cause sufficient delay and harm to the concerned mental patient or others;

"forensic mental patient" means a person who is referred to a mental health facility by a court for assessment in order to determine whether or not that person is mentally fit to stand trial, or to be held criminally responsible for an offence;

"health care provider" means a person registered and licensed under the Health Professions Council of Zambia or the General Nursing Council of Zambia or, any other health regulatory body;

"health facility" has the meaning assigned to the word in the Health Professions Act, 2009;

"health practitioner" has the meaning assigned to the word in the Health Professions Act, 2009;

"in-charge" means an officer with commensurate authority to superintend the management of a health facility;

"informed consent" means consent obtained freely, without threats or improper inducements, after appropriate disclosure to the mental patient of adequate and clear information in a form and language understood by the mental patient on—

(a) the diagnostic assessment;

(b) the purpose, method, likely duration and expected benefit of the proposed treatment;

(d) possible pain or discomfort, risks and side effects of the proposed treatment;

"informed decision" means a decision by a mental health services user about a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure, based on choice, which requires the decision to be voluntary and that the mental patient has the capacity for choice, which rests on the following key elements—

(a) possession of a set of values and goals for which the mental patient need to make a decision;

(b) ability to understand information and communicate decisions; and

"involuntary admission" means the detention and provision of mental health services to a mental patient who—

(a) is incapable of making an informed decision due to their mental health status; or

(b) unreasonably withholds or refuses to give informed consent but requires those services for that person’s own protection or for the protection of others;

"mental capacity" means the capability to make independent informed decisions and to act on that decision and understand the consequences of the decision made and action taken;

"mental disability" means long-term psycho-social impairment which may hinder a person’s full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others;

"mental disorder" means diagnosis of a mental condition, impairment or disability in the absence of demonstrable organic etiological factor also referred to as functional neurosis or psychosis;

"mental health" means a state of well-being in which a person realises that person’s potential to cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to the person’s community;

"mental health care" includes analysis and diagnosis of a person’s mental condition, and treatment, care, rehabilitation and palliation for a mental illness or suspected mental illness;

"mental health facility" means an establishment, or unit of an establishment which provides mental health care as its primary function;

"mental health intervention" means an action or service rendered to a—

(a) mental patient for treatment or rehabilitation; or

(b) community promoting mental health or preventing mental disorder;

"mental health practitioner" means a medical doctor, clinical psychologist, psychiatrist, nurse, social worker or other appropriately qualified person with relevant skills in mental health care and registered with a relevant regulatory authority;

"mental health services" means mental health promotion, and prevention, assessment, treatment, care, rehabilitation, palliation and any other related support services, programs and interventions for a mental disorder;

"mental health service resources" means the provision of materials, finances, human resources and infrastructure for the provision of mental health services;

"mental health service user" means a person receiving treatment, care, rehabilitation or palliation services or using a health service at a health facility aimed at enhancing the mental health status of a user;

"mental health specialist" means a person who has undertaken advanced training in mental health to work with people with mental illnesses and psycho-social issues and includes psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric nurses, psychiatric clinical officers, therapists including child, marriage and family counsellors, licensed or certified under the Health Professions Act, 2009, or the Nurses and Midwives Act, 1997, or other applicable legislation related to mental health services;

"mental illness" means a mental impairment or disability with evidence of an organic etiology;

"mental impairment" means a permanent outcome, effect, aftermath or after effect of a mental illness that affects a person’s ability to function normally in society;

"mental patient" means a person diagnosed by a mental health practitioner as having a mental illness, mental disorder, mental impairment or mental disability;

"officer-in-charge" means an officer with commensurate authority to superintend the management of a correctional centre;

"place of safety" means a designated health facility or other secure location taking into consideration the best interpretation of the will and preference of the mental patient;

"primary care giver" means a health care provider, spouse, relative, friend or community-based worker closest to the mental patient;

"primary health care" means essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals, families and communities at a cost that the community and the country can afford to maintain;

"psychiatrist" means a person registered as such under the Health Professions Act, 2009;

"public mental health facility" means a government run site, health post, clinic, hospital, fixed or mobile, providing services for the promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of a mental patient;

"reasonable accommodation" has the meaning assigned to the word in the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2012;

"rehabilitation" has the meaning assigned to the word in the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2012;

"supporter" means a person who represents a mental health service user or mental patient’s rights or interests;

"treatment" means an intervention given to control, cure or provide relief from symptoms of a disorder, an illness, impairment or cognitive and psycho-social disability, approved by a relevant regulatory authority; and

"voluntary admission" means the provision of mental health interventions to a person who gives informed consent to the health interventions.

3. General principles for determination of condition of mental patient

The following principles apply to the determination of a condition of a mental patient—

(a) the determination of whether a person is a mental patient shall be made in accordance with principles in this Act and the applicable diagnostic criteria and relevant professional standards;

(b) the determination of whether a person is a mental patient shall not be made on the basis of political, economic or social status or membership in a cultural, racial or religious group, or for any other reason not directly relevant to the mental health status of a person;

(c) a family or professional conflict, or non-conformity with moral, social, cultural or political values or religious beliefs prevailing in a person’s community, shall not be a determining factor in the diagnosis of mental illness; and

(d) a background of past treatment or hospitalisation of a mental patient shall not be used as a basis to justify any present or future determination of mental illness.

PART II
LEGAL CAPACITY AND RIGHTS OF MENTAL PATIENTS

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