MENTAL ILLNESS TREATMENT IN LAW: ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF GLOBAL MENTAL HEALTH

Abstract

This analysis seeks to demonstrate the recognition of the right to mental health corresponding to an obligation on the part of the State to create the conditions for the pursuit of the right to protection of those who show conditions of “vulnerability”.The study gives us the opportunity to highlight some interesting ideas. The work starts from the consideration of the role of the madman in legal and social history with an inevitable reference to some leading figures of nineteenth-century phrenology (Franz Joseph Gall, Ferraresi Miraglia, Dorothea Dix) who have also provided a substantial contribution to the legal treatment of the protection of mentally ill people. The birth of psychology and the affirmation of human rights in the twentieth century are other elements that lead to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006 and subsequent acts, all reported by the WHO in the MiNDbank, including MI5 Principles and programs such as the 2013-2020 Mental Health Action Plan. Finally, the international process defining systems for the prevention, treatment and assistance of people with mental illnesses for the 21st century, called Global Mental Health (GMH) — promoted and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) — ensures some internationally agreed minimum standards on health care worldwide, which was part of the Millennium Goals of the United Nations and the current Sustainable Development Goals.