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The new mental health law in Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Daniel Moldavsky
Affiliation:
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, UK, email daniel.moldavsky@nottshc.nhs.uk
Hugo Cohen
Affiliation:
MPH (Spain), World Health Organization and Pan-American Health Organization Adviser for Mental Health, South America
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The Argentinean Congreso de la Nacion (National Congress, or Parliament) approved in November 2010 a new Mental Health Law (MHL) (Law 26657, ‘Salud Publico. Derecho a la Proteccion de la Salud Mental’ [Public Health. The Right to Protect Mental Health]). Although it is not the first law concerning mental health – as several of the provinces and the autonomous city of Buenos Aires (Argentina's capital) have enacted their own – the MHL establishes principles for human rights and the protection of patients, and aims to develop approaches in mental health that are compatible with the most advanced views and legislation from high-income countries. In this paper we report on the most important aspects of the MHL. We highlight areas that represent a change for Argentina, such as the new arrangements for both informal and compulsory admission to hospital.

Type
Mental Health Law Profiles
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2013

References

Moldavsky, D., Savage, C., Stein, E., et al (2011) Mental health in Argentina. International Psychiatry, 8, 6466.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1996) Guidelines for the Promotion of Human Rights of Persons with Mental Disorders. WHO.Google Scholar
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