The Mental Health Act 2025. How will you update your advice and information?

The Mental Health Act 2025 became law on the 18 December 2025.

The Act is a welcome step towards modernising the Mental Health Act 1983. The Mental Health Act is the law that says you can be detained in hospital for assessment or treatment. This is if your mental health is very bad and you might be a risk to yourself or other people.

In this article about the Mental Health Act 2025 you can read more about it. 

Some minor changes brought in by the Act take effect 2 months after 18 December 2025. But the Department for Health and Social Care have not yet said when the main parts of the Act will come into force.

The Rethink Advice and Information Service will update all the affected advice and information pages on the website. They will publish the changes once the relevant parts of the Act come into force.  

Last updated: December 2025.