Emergency Treatment

Under the law, emergency treatment refers to any medical and mental health care treatment. It can be provided by a registered medical practitioner to a person with mental illness¹. For this, the consent of the nominated representative is required, if they are available.

The immediate treatment prevents²:

• The death or harm to the person
• The person from inflicting serious harm to themselves and/or to others
• The person from causing serious damage to their or others’ property

However, this does not allow the use of electroconvulsive therapy³. Further, it does not allow to use any treatment not directly related to the criteria mentioned above⁴.

In addition, this treatment is limited to 72 hours under normal circumstances or up to 7 days during an emergency⁵.

1. Section 94(1),  the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. [↩]
2. Section 94(1),  the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. [↩]
3. Section 94(3),  the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. [↩]
4. Section 94(2),  the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. [↩]
5. Section 94(4),  the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. [↩]