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Forensic psychiatric service provision in Pakistan and its challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Tariq Hassan ,
Asad Tamizuddin Nizami  and
M. Selim Asmer
Tariq Hassan
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, email [email protected]
Asad Tamizuddin Nizami
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, Rawalpindi Medical College, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
M. Selim Asmer
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, email [email protected]
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Abstract

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In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan the law relating to people who are mentally ill, until 2001, was set out by the Lunacy Act of 1912, which was inherited from the British colonial occupiers. In 2001 the Mental Health Ordinance 2001 took its place but only for this federal law to be superseded in April 2010 with the 18th constitutional amendment. As part of that amendment, provinces have become responsible for (psychiatric) healthcare, including mental health legislation. Forensic psychiatry is practised in Pakistan but is very much in its infancy; it needs to develop and learn from more experienced countries in Europe and North America. Cultural factors and misconceptions arising from religion can at times contribute to, or create, barriers to the implementation of forensic psychiatric services in Pakistan. This paper reviews the current state of forensic psychiatric services in Pakistan and is intended to open the debate on the challenges ahead.

Type
Psychiatry Under Restrictive Conditions
Information
BJPsych International , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , May 2017 , pp. 40 - 44
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2017

References

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