I propose to take Questions Nos. 409, 411 and 412 together.
Section 8 of the Mental Health Act, 2001 outlines the criteria for the involuntary admission of a person into an approved hospital or other in-patient facility for the care and treatment of persons suffering from mental illness or mental disorder. It states that a person may be detained in such a centre where he or she is suffering from a mental disorder. It does, however, prohibit the detention of a person deemed not to have a mental disorder but who is addicted to drugs or intoxicants or is suffering from a personality disorder. Section 3 of the Act defines “mental illness” as being a state of mind which affects the person’s thinking, perceiving, emotion or judgement and which seriously impairs the mental function of the person to the extent that he or she requires care or medical treatment in his or her own interest or in the interest of other persons. The prescription of psychotropic drugs may be taken as a clinical indication of a mental health disorder if it has been prescribed to treat a mental illness.