In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires
"assisted treatment and care"
means the provision of health interventions to a person who presents himself or herself voluntarily to a health unit or mental health unit but is incapable of making informed decisions due to his or her mental health status especially during episodes of mental illness;
"Board"
means the Uganda Mental Health Advisory Board established under section
4
;
"bodily restraint"
means restraint where the free movement of the body or part of the body of a patient is restricted using a device for example clothing, a belt, a harness, a sheet or a strap, which is tied or fastened to the body or part of the body of the patient;
"community mental health services"
refer to a system of care in which the community members of a person with mental illness, in collaboration with health workers are the primary providers of the interventions to promote mental wellbeing of a person with mental illness;
"community treatment order"
means an order issued by a senior mental health practitioner, giving instructions regarding the involuntary treatment of a person with mental illness at a primary health centre;
"concerned person"
means a person who, not being a relative of a person with mental illness, has reasonable and justifiable concern for the wellbeing of the person with mental illness;
"court"
means a court with competent jurisdiction;
"currency point"
has the value assigned to it in Schedule 1 to this Act;
(a)
a wife, a husband, a son or daughter under eighteen years of age or a son or daughter of or above eighteen years of age who is wholly or substantially dependant on the person with mental illness;
(b)
a parent, a brother or sister, a grandparent or grandchild who is wholly or substantially dependant on the person with mental illness for the provision of the ordinary necessaries of life suitable to a person of his or her situation; or
(c)
any other person who is wholly or substantially dependant on the person with mental illness.
"emergency treatment"
means psychiatric treatment that is necessary to give to a person to-
(a)
save the life of that person; or
(b)
prevent the person from behaving in a way that is likely to result into serious physical harm to that person or any other person;
"health unit"
means a government hospital and includes a primary health centre and a similar non- govemmental hospital;
"mechanical bodily restraint"
means restraint which prevents the free movement of the body or a limb of a patient by mechanical means as a form of treatment of physical disease or injury, but does not include restraint by the use of a medical or surgical appliance;
"medical practitioner"
means a person registered as a medical practitioner under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act and includes a psychiatry nurse registered as such under the Nurses and Midwives Act;
"mental capacity"
means the independent and informed cognitive ability to understand the nature and effects of one's decisions and actions;
"mental health practitioner"
means a psychiatrist, a registered psychiatry nurse, psychiatry clinical officer, a mental health social worker and a clinical psychologist;
"mental health services"
refers to assessment, diagnosis, treatment, care, counselling or any intervention provided to promote emotional, psychological and cognitive wellbeing of a person with mental illness;
"mental health service user"
refers to any person receiving either continuous or non-continuous mental health care and treatment services from a health unit, mental health unit or community aimed at enhancing his or her mental health status regardless of age, gender, social or economic standing;
"mental health unit"
means any building or part of a building appointed by the Minister under this Act or by a statutory instrument, for the admission, treatment and care of persons with mental illness;
"mental illness"
means a diagnosis of a mental health condition in terms of accepted diagnostic criteria made by a mental health practitioner or medical practitioner authorised to make such diagnosis and for purposes of this definition, mental health conditions include but are not limited to depression, bipolar, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and addictive behaviour due to alcohol or substance abuse among others;
"Minister"
means the Minister responsible for health;
"patient"
means a person who receives treatment and care for mental illness under this Act;
"person in authority"
includes a community leader, a chief, an officer or member of a political, technical or administrative structure of a local government, a police officer, a religious leader, a nongovernmental organisation or any other person of influence in a community;
"person with mental illness"
means a person who is proven, at a particular time, by a mental health practitioner to have mental illness, at that particular time, and includes a patient;
"personal representative"
is a person appointed in writing by a person with mental illness to act on his or her behalf, or a person appointed by court to act on behalf of a person with mental illness, where the person with mental illness loses capacity to execute a particular task;
"primary health Centre"
means a government primary health centre II, III or IV or equivalent health unit in the private sector;
"psychiatric treatment"
means treatment for mental illness that does not involve-
(a)
treatment that involves the deep sleep therapy or insulin coma or sub coma therapy;
(c)
electroconvulsive therapy;
"Public Trustee"
means a person appointed as such under the Public Trustees Act;
"relative"
means a spouse, parent, grandparent, child, sibling, uncle or aunt, of a person with mental illness, whether by blood, marriage or a relationship established by law;
"seclusion"
means the sole confinement of a patient in a room, where it is not within the control of that patient who is confined, to leave that room;
"senior mental health practitioner"
means a psychiatrist, senior psychiatry clinical officer, senior psychiatry nursing officer, senior mental health social worker and senior clinical psychologist;
"treatment and care"
means the provision of interventions whether medical or otherwise to a person with mental illness.