Mental Health Bill: Concerns and Call to Action

2025

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October 22, 2025

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Mental Health Bill: Concerns and Call to Action

Hi all,

The Mental Health Act is being reviewed, and here is some information on it.

The Mental Health Bill is due before the Seanad at Committee Stage in the coming weeks. This legislation will shape Ireland’s future mental health system, and we’re now at a critical juncture – one of our final opportunities to push for changes that could strengthen the rights of people accessing mental health services, especially in in-patient settings.

While the Bill contains many positive elements, Mental Health Reform continues to have concerns about key areas that urgently need improvement. We’ve recently published a Plain English Guide outlining these concerns, which you can read here.

We’re asking you to help amplify these concerns by taking actions, such as:

Sharing key concerns with your networks and on social media (please share our content on social media or create your own content)
Contacting Senators directly and encouraging your network to contact them to express support for rights-based amendments to the Bill
Writing a short statement or letter for a website or for media or posting a video outlining your key concerns

Below is a brief overview of some of our main asks in relation to the Bill, along with a sample of a few direct quotes from lived experience voices that highlight the real-world impact of these issues:

1. Advocacy: The Bill should establish a statutory right to independent advocacy to ensure people are informed, heard, and supported.
“I did not have provided the mental health advocate any time I was admitted to the hospital. My English language wasn’t that good at the time, so couldn’t explain how I feel and what happened to me. Based on this issue, I was wrong diagnosed and they gave me a wrong medication, so I had have a plenty of side effects. I was completely alone at the time in Ireland.”
“Too many of us have been spoken over, not spoken with. Advocacy isn’t a luxury. It’s a lifeline to fairness, dignity, and understanding. Make it a statutory right, not a service you “might” get. No one should face a system alone at their most vulnerable.”

2. Independent Complaints Mechanism: A clear, impartial complaints process is needed for service users to raise concerns and seek redress.
“People must have somewhere safe to turn when they’re wronged – somewhere outside the same system that harmed them. Complaints often go nowhere; survivors end up retraumatised just trying to be heard.”

3. Involuntary Detention and Treatment: Recent changes to the Tribunal process and expanded involuntary treatment powers should be reconsidered. Involuntary detention and involuntary treatment must be last-resort options with strong legal safeguards.
“I was hospitalised on numerous occasions over a period of almost 30 years principally due to being unsafe. I encountered many caring professionals during this time and I’m sure that for the most part the belief was that I was “likely to benefit” from the treatment administered however I was given no understanding of what was happening or why and my experience of hospital of itself was traumatising…‘The test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.’ Involuntary patients are the most helpless of those who experience mental health difficulties as for the most part they are voiceless pawns. They are subjected to trauma in the process of being “detained” which impacts their ability to process and communicate what is happening even before the possibility of further trauma as a result of whatever treatment is deemed necessary.”
“They came and destroyed my door. They went inside and treated me like nothing, they used on me the violence even if it wasn’t necessary. I have no chance to protect or take my important things from home. They are bringing me to Hospital, where I didn’t want to take medication, where I have tried to understand what happens and why. Then the different nurses have used the violence of me, the pushed me on the bed and gave me an injection.”
“I’ve seen how loss of control can strip a person of hope – it makes recovery harder, not easier. We need strong legal safeguards and real oversight so people aren’t silenced or subdued for convenience. Treatment should empower, not punish.”

4. Chemical Restraint: The Bill lacks safeguards around chemical restraint, despite regulating other forms of restraint and seclusion. These safeguards must be added.
“Too often, medication is used to sedate rather than support – and that’s not care, that’s control.”

5. Children in Adult Units: The Bill still allows children to be admitted to adult units. At minimum, strict time limits and safeguards are needed.
“It’s terrifying, isolating, and fundamentally wrong – I’ve seen the trauma it leaves behind.”

6. Language: The term “mental disorder” is outdated and stigmatising. The Bill should remove this term and update it with more appropriate language.
“The phrase ‘mental disorder’ carries weight – and stigma. It defines people by what’s ‘wrong’ rather than what’s possible.”
“The term mental disorder is archaic and stigmatising…many mental health difficulties are as a result of what happened & in many instances continues to happen to people rather than the fact that there is something “wrong” with them.”

If you’d like to be more actively involved in our advocacy efforts, or if you have additional concerns about the Bill, please don’t hesitate to get in touch through email or call me directly on 086 024 5409.

Every voice strengthens our call for a mental health system and legislation that truly protects and empowers those it serves. We hope that you will work with us to ensure this legislation is as strong and rights-focused as it can be.