The need for mental health protection in the new Healthcare Basic Law: The Portuguese mental health framework

Abstract

The article outlines the panorama of mental health in contemporary times, in the world, but especially in the Portuguese context. It points out the concept, scope, main disorders, costs and the increasing prevalence of mental illness, on the one hand, and the legal treatment of mental health in the Portuguese system. It advances to the burning debates involving the discussion of the proposals for the revision of the Healthcare Basic Law. It concludes by pointing a need for the inclusion of an own and specific basis for the mental health in the new Healthcare Basic Law.