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mentally handicapped without aggressive or irresponsible conduct should not be subject to compulsory detention and treatment in a mental hospital. After consultation, the Administration has agreed to delete the phrase under Section 2
including mental impairment and to amend the relevant section to the effect that persons suffering only from arrested or incomplete development of mind should not be subject to detention. Furthermore, the Administration has agreed to set up a working party in three months' time to assess the need and desirability of introducing a separate legislation to take care of the various aspects of welfare of the mentally handicapped. It is understood that the working party is expected to finish the task within a period of 18 months. May I ask the
Administration to confirm this?
There are criticisms that the police might be given
too much power under the proposed new Section 71B which
provides that if a police officer finds in any place a person who appears to him to be suffering from mental disorder and to or be in immediate need of care and control, he may take him to a
place of safety. After consultation, the Administration has agreed to replace the phrase who appears to him by whom he reasonably believes to be. To exercise his powers under this section, the police officer must satisfy himself that two
conditions have been met, namely: (a) a person whom he
reasonably believes to be suffering from mental disorder, and (b) the person is in immediate need of care and control. Furthermore, mentally sick persons often do not know that they
need treatment and therefore they do not take the initiative to
seek it. Hence, it would be in the interest of the community
and of the patient himself if the police officer is so
empowered. After all, the police officer is given the power only to take the suspected mentally sick person to the Accident and Emergency Department of the nearest hospital where he will be placed in the authority of a registered medical practitioner
and will be examined within 24 hours. In the circumstances,
remove
the enforcement of Section 71B does not appear to me to infringe on civil liberties. As a matter of fact, it is
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