The Critical Mental Health Forum opposes the Government's Community Treatment Order proposals as they currently stand. We believe that they represent a serious undermining of people’s civil rights. Research into recovery from mental distress suggests that people benefit most when they have a good therapeutic relationship with their helpers. Increasing the compulsory powers that mental health professionals have is likely to undermine the potential for trusting collaborative relationships between helpers and patients. Whilst forcibly medicating people living in the community may seem like an easy option it would ultimately harm people's potential to live independent and fulfilling lives. The Critical Mental Health Forum therefore sees the present Community Treatment Order proposals as likely to harm people's chances of receiving beneficial treatment and care. They would infringe on people’s rights to genuinely helpful mental health services. In summary we believe that Community Treatment Orders as they are currently proposed would do more harm than good.

The Critical Mental Health Forum further suggests:

• People should have access to a place of sanctuary/asylum that does not use compulsory medical treatments.
• People should only receive compulsory treatment if they are judged to not have the 'capacity' to make an informed decision about their treatment at the time.
• Before compulsory drug treatment is considered as an option, health services should have a duty to show they have tried other kinds of treatment such as psychological support and non medical respite care.
• When compulsory treatment is used this should adhere to the wishes of patients as detailed in an advanced statement.