Mental Health

The Centre has been involved for several years in providing guidance/advice to a range of bodies responsible for monitoring places where individuals are deprived of their liberty in the context of mental health. 

The HRIC’s core activities in relation to mental health have included:

• Making links between OPCAT and the CRPD, particularly with respect to monitoring;
• The provision of advice on OPCAT and CRPD compliance;
• The development of a ‘toolkit’ to assist mental health NPM members with follow-up and implementation of recommendations.

Comparative research on monitoring arrangements for mental health in a number of different jurisdictions ' was commissioned and published by the Care Quality Commission in July 2013 ( A comparative review of international monitoring mechanisms for mental health legislation (PDF, 349kB).  This project was conducted by two of the HRICs members - Professor Judy Laing and Professor Rachel Murray.  The research was commissioned by the CQC to assist it in understanding experiences in other countries of monitoring their mental health legislation.  The research fed directly into the CQC’s strategy review of its monitoring methodology in 2012-13, thereby helping the CQC to move forward with the development of this function according to an international evidence base and knowledge about best practice.

Professor Judy Laing was a member of the CQC’s Mental Health Act Advisory Group from 2012-2021, stemming from her work on OPCAT and mental health. In this role, Judy attended regular Advisory Group meetings and her opinion was sought on the CQC’s Annual Mental Health Act Monitoring reports.

Professor Judy Laing’s expertise in this area has informed several parliamentary inquiries into mental health, human rights and law/policy reform. She has submitted written evidence to numerous parliamentary select committees, including to the Joint Human Rights Committee’s Inquiry of Mental Health and Deaths in Prison in 2017. She submitted written evidence and was invited to give oral evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry into Protecting Human Rights in Care Settings in February 2022 and to the Joint Scrutiny Committee on the Draft Mental Health Bill in November 2022. Judy undertook a parliamentary academic fellowship in 2020-2022, working in the House of Commons Library Social Policy team to produce a range of briefings on aspects of mental health law and policy, including an insight briefing on Refugee mental health and the response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. During the fellowship, she also worked closely with the Health and Social Care Committee and contributed to its report into the detention of children and young people with a learning disabilities and/or autism.

Judy has published extensively on aspects of mental health law and human rights, and her recent research explores how to strengthen the legal literacy and rights of relatives under mental health law.

For more information on this theme, please contact Professor Judy Laing.

Email: j.m.laing@bristol.ac.uk