New Mental Health Act in Saskatchewan

Abstract

(vii) The judges who deal with these problems (see iv, above) should deal with them in camera, where this is deemed to be in the interest of justice. (viii) Revision and consolidation of the legislation should recognize two forms of admission: (a) voluntary, (b) involuntary. In both cases, the admitting procedures should be analogous to general admitting procedures for other types of illness; the isolated asylum idea should be eliminated. Mental health problems of prisoners should be dealt with; the penetentiary and the gaol are not the proper places in which to handle these cases. (ix) The law and the medical schools should sponsor medico-legal courses or seminars in which mental health problems receive attention. Curran, Law and Medicine (1961), has excellent materials on the subject. Revised and consolidated legislation should remove all provisions which in any way imply that there is a stigma attached to mental illness. In closing, it is not without interest to note that one of the United States' greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, apparently suffered from a form of emotional or mental illness.'9 And, indeed, the man credited with founding the case-method of law teaching in the United States has been described as a brilliant neurotic.20 Of course, many other examples of prominent persons who suffered in this manner could be cited. But the two lawyers mentioned should suffice for present purposes. Lincoln himself had occasion to write: