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Mental Health Bill [Lords]

If the services are not available at the moment of crisis, having a piece of legislation that says that the person’s wishes can be overridden will not make any difference. It is the services that make the difference, and the person may think that it is not worth engaging with the services, or they may be deterred from or frightened of doing so—perhaps because they have had long experience of mental health services or bad reactions to drugs that were forced on them against their better judgment. They might decide that they would rather suffer than run the risk of being dictated to by a psychiatrist who might be acting in their best interests, but who overrides their wishes even if they retain their capacity. The danger of those people slipping under the clinical radar is as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than the scenario the hon. Gentleman suggests.