From big cities to small territories, there is one law that prevails in Australia and that law is Mental Health Act. The law gives permission to the authorities concerned to detain and treat people who have been suffering from poor mental health across the country.

Main strength of the law is that it gives doctors a power to treat these patients without their consent. They do so, on the basis of the one reason that these people can either harm themselves or can pose a threat to others.

Further procedure being adopted by authorities concerned when mentally ill people are being detained is that doctors decide that who should be treated and who should be not. The decision of doctors is then being assessed by tribunals. However, it would not be wrong to say that doctors act as substitute decision-makers in the entire process.

The way by which people are being treated under the Mental Health Act ha got mixed reviews. Some say, it is a great way, and other calls for reforms in the law and according to the place. It is said that one cannot detain anybody and that too on the basis that it is assumed that the specific person can cause harm.