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The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 came into effect on 5 October 2005. It will affect the lives of many service users and carers and covers a wide range of issues including:

• Compulsory powers – setting out when people can be legally required to go into hospital, or to accept services or treatment that they may not want
• New rights and safeguards, including a right to access independent advocacy services
• The Mental Health Tribunal – which will hear cases under the Act
• Powers of the Mental Welfare Commission
• Duties on Health Boards and local authorities.

SAMH believes that the Act has the potential to improve mental health services in Scotland if it is implemented properly. We will be watching how it works in practice, and highlighting any areas of concern.

Tell us about your experiences - SAMH is interested in hearing about people’s experiences under the Act, particularly people with mental health problems and their carers. Perhaps you have had problems exercising your rights, or maybe you have been involved in Tribunal hearings. Whatever your experiences, good or bad, we would be interested in hearing about them, to help inform the campaigning work that we do. You can email your views to: mentalhealthact@samh.org.uk [Need to check wording / DPA issues]