Overview

The National Mental Health Act, 2021 (No. 46) of Nigeria is a comprehensive legislation enacted on 28th December 2022 to establish the Mental Health Services Department, promote and protect the rights of persons with intellectual, psychosocial, or cognitive disabilities, and regulate mental health services in the country. The Act is structured into five parts and includes 58 sections. Part I outlines objectives, coordination, and administration, including the establishment of the Mental Health Services Department, its objectives, powers, functions, the Mental Health Fund, and the Mental Health Assessment Committee. Part II details the rights of persons with mental health conditions, covering employment, housing, access to services, quality treatment, legal representation, participation in treatment, privacy, confidentiality, and protection from discrimination. Part III focuses on facility-based treatment, including establishment of facilities, treatment programmes, informed consent, voluntary and involuntary admission, conditions for restraint or seclusion, prohibition of sterilization, regulation of electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery, clinical research, protection of children, support for carers, removal to a place of safety, leave, discharge, and handling of non-accredited facilities. Part IV addresses persons with mental health conditions involved in criminal proceedings, including admission of criminal patients, compulsory orders with restrictions, and removal of inmates to hospital. Part V covers property and affairs of persons with mental health conditions, emergency powers of judges, violations, refusal to supply information, forgery, assisting unlawful absence, sexual relationships with patients, limitation of suits, interpretation, and citation. The Act also includes a schedule. Key entities include the Mental Health Services Department, the Mental Health Fund, and the Mental Health Assessment Committee. The document is a policy/act of the Nigerian government.

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