Impact of Mental Health Care Bill on caregivers of mentally ill: Boon or bane.

BACKGROUND: To improvise the shortcomings of existing of mental health legislation (The Mental Health Act, 1987) of India, amendments have been made which ultimately conceptualized, to form the Mental Health Care Bill. Mental Health Care Bill has brought a revolutionary change in the existing mental health legislation which is in its final phase of approval. METHOD: Many of the changes brought by the Mental Health Care Bill has been appreciated at different level, at the same time it has received robust criticism for over-legalizing and complicating the delivery of mental health care. RESULT: Caregivers play a pivotal role in the management of psychiatric illness in developing countries like India and they face a lot of challenges for providing support to the mentally ill patients. DISCUSSION: The social, economical, physical as well as the psychological wellbeing of the caregivers are significantly affected while providing care to the mentally ill. The forthcoming Mental Health Care Bill is likely to have a noteworthy impact on the caregivers. It's high time to analyze, its projected impact on the caregivers of patients suffering from mental illness.