(1)

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) "advance directive " means an advance directive made by a person under section 5;

(b) "appropriate Government " means,-

(c) "Authority " means the Central Mental Health Authority or the State Mental Health Authority, as the case may be;

(d) "Board " means the Mental Health Review Board constituted by the State Authority under sub-section (1) of section 80 in such manner as may be prescribed;

(e) "care-giver " means a person who resides with a person with mental illness and is responsible for providing care to that person and includes a relative or any other person who performs this function, either free or with remuneration;

(f) "Central Authority " means the Central Mental Health Authority constituted under section 33;

(g) "clinical psychologist " means a person-

(h) "family " means a group of persons related by blood, adoption or marriage;

(i) "informed consent " means consent given for a specific intervention, without any force, undue influence, fraud, threat, mistake or misrepresentation, and obtained after disclosing to a person adequate information including risks and benefits of, and alternatives to, the specific intervention in a language and manner understood by the person;

(j) "least restrictive alternative " or "least restrictive environment " or "less restrictive option " means offering an option for treatment or a setting for treatment which-

(k) "local authority " means a Municipal Corporation or Municipal Council, or Zilla Parishad, or Nagar Panchayat, or Panchayat, by whatever name called, and includes such other authority or body having administrative control over the mental health establishment or empowered under any law for the time being in force, to function as a local authority in any city or town or village;

(l) "Magistrate " means-

(m) "medical officer in charge " in relation to any mental health establishment means the psychiatrist or medical practitioner who, for the time being, is in charge of that mental health establishment;

(n) "medical practitioner " means a person who possesses a recognised medical qualification-

(o) "Mental healthcare " includes analysis and diagnosis of a person's mental condition and treatment as well as care and rehabilitation of such person for his mental illness or suspected mental illness;

(p) "mental health establishment " means any health establishment, including Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy establishment, by whatever name called, either wholly or partly, meant for the care of persons with mental illness, established, owned, controlled or maintained by the appropriate Government, local authority, trust, whether private or public, corporation, co-operative society, organisation or any other entity or person, where persons with mental illness are admitted and reside at, or kept in, for care, treatment, convalescence and rehabilitation, either temporarily or otherwise; and includes any general hospital or general nursing home established or maintained by the appropriate Government, local authority, trust, whether private or public, corporation, co-operative society, organisation or any other entity or person; but does not include a family residential place where a person with mental illness resides with his relatives or friends;

(q) "mental health nurse " means a person with a diploma or degree in general nursing or diploma or degree in psychiatric nursing recognised by the Nursing Council of India established under the Nursing Council of India Act, 1947 and registered as such with the relevant nursing council in the State;

(r) "mental health professional " means-

(s) "mental illness " means a substantial disorder of thinking, mood, perception, orientation or memory that grossly impairs judgment, behaviour, capacity to recognise reality or ability to meet the ordinary demands of life, mental conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol and drugs, but does not include mental retardation which is a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind of a person, specially characterised by subnormality of intelligence;

(t) "minor " means a person who has not completed the age of eighteen years;

(u) "notification " means a notification published in the Official Gazette and the expression "notify " shall be construed accordingly;

(v) "prescribed " means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(w) "prisoner with mental illness " means a person with mental illness who is an under-trial or convicted of an offence and detained in a jail or prison;

(x) "psychiatric social worker " means a person having a post-graduate degree in Social Work and a Master of Philosophy in Psychiatric Social Work obtained after completion of a full time course of two years which includes supervised clinical training from any University recognised by the University Grants Commission established under the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 or such recognised qualifications, as may be prescribed;

(y) "psychiatrist " means a medical practitioner possessing a post-graduate degree or diploma in psychiatry awarded by an university recognised by the University Grants Commission established under the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, or awarded or recognised by the National Board of Examinations and included in the First Schedule to the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, or recognised by the Medical Council of India, constituted under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, and includes, in relation to any State, any medical officer who having regard to his knowledge and experience in psychiatry, has been declared by the Government of that State to be a psychiatrist for the purposes of this Act;

(z) "regulations " means regulations made under this Act;

(2)

The words and expressions used and not defined in this Act but defined in the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 or the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 and not inconsistent with this Act shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in those Acts.