Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, obviously these amendments reflect concerns raised in Committee and at Second Reading. The short-term phrase ““psychiatric ASBOs”” has been used, which we refute. I have concerns about the impact that the amendments would have and want to make it clear that the conditions attached to a community treatment order set a framework for the patient’s life in the community. One is not being defensive about this—that is what they are there to do. They make clear what the patient needs to do or not in order to manage his or her mental disorder and to remain stable. As noble Lords have suggested, they will be greatly dependent on the professional views of the responsible clinician and the improved mental health practitioner because the conditions must relate to the patient’s mental disorder and its management. They must also be acceptable—even if not agreeable—to the patient at the outset. Inevitably, the establishment of the community treatment order will take place after discussion between the patient concerned and the clinician. It is hardly likely to work if the patient is not in a position to take advantage of the community treatment order. If the patient does not agree at least to try to keep to the conditions, what are the chances that supervised community treatment would succeed in the first place? As set out, the conditions say that they may be specified. They are merely examples, which will not be appropriate for every case. They are not, with the exception of, "““a condition that the patient make himself available for examination””," enforceable. That is not their purpose. We do not propose to recall a patient to hospital merely because he has failed to comply with a condition. Of course, a failure to comply is a signal that something may be going wrong and, depending on the patient’s medical condition, recall to hospital may be necessary, but that will depend on the patient’s individual circumstances and is not automatic. I stress that, just as the conditions in general are not mandatory, the fifth condition is likely to be appropriate for only a minority of patients. It is there for consideration where it is directly relevant to the patient’s mental disorder and will contribute to the success of the patient’s community treatment. If abstaining from a particular kind of conduct would help a patient to remain stable and if making it a condition of a community treatment order makes that abstention more achievable, the patient and others will benefit. It would be unacceptable to impose such a condition for any other reason, which will be made clear in the code of practice. Two professionals will be involved when a community treatment order is made; namely, the responsible clinician and the approved mental health practitioner, who must both agree to all the conditions before they can be set. That should surely ensure that there will not be arbitrary conditions imposed which cannot be justified. I was asked about examples: in Committee, I quoted an example in which a patient was thought to be illegally taking drugs or consuming alcohol to adverse limits. That could impact on the overall treatment and condition of the patient and, in certain circumstances, it may be appropriate to lay such a condition. If noble Lords accept that, I know that they would then wish to bring the tribunal into play. We do not agree that that is the way forward. The tribunal of course is an independent judicial body, which considers the justification for a person’s continuing detention, guardianship or compulsory treatment order under the Act. But referring the issue to a tribunal would be to ask the tribunal to substitute its judgment about the best way to treat a patient for that of the professional, or professionals, responsible. We do not agree that that is a relevant decision for the tribunal. It is interesting that the amendment does not propose that the tribunal set new conditions to substitute for those that the responsible clinician has sought to place in the case of a particular patient. We also think that these amendments might impose extra and unnecessary burdens on the tribunal, and extra bureaucracy on the tribunal and the responsible clinician. I stress again that, ultimately, the conditions laid out in new Section 17B ““may”” be specified, save for the condition, "““that the patient make himself available for examination””." A failure to observe one of those conditions would not lead to the—