It was 6 October 1997 and Labour was in government.

Health minister Michael Farrugia joined nurses and patients at Mount Carmel Hospital, who had spent a weekend at Golden Sands Hotel, and announced that the Mental Health Reform Committee was drawing up a White Paper on mental health.

That was almost 10 years ago.

The much promised White Paper was not published in 1998.

The Labour government had been accused of turning around the process of reform in mental health and, once back in power, the Nationalist government shelved the White Paper promise.

The aim of updating the 1976 Mental Health Act remained.

Almost 10 years down the line, the Mental Health Act is still awaiting discussion in the House. Mental health practitioners, who had a hand in the drafting of the proposals nine years ago, say it is already outdated, as it was based on the 1990 British legislation and mental health practice has meanwhile moved on.

This is not to say that nothing has been done in the intervening years.

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Just days before the 1998 election, Dr Farrugia was still promising the White Paper. The Nationalist government then instituted a series of hearings in the Social Affairs Committee with very useful and informative information being given, including interventions by relatives of mental health patients.

Reading what was said today makes for wry thoughts: there were the same complaints on lack of staff, charges of maladministration etc. Meanwhile, the number of patients progressively grew smaller as many were sent out to live in sheltered housing and homes.

It was only in 2000 that the government drew up the amendments to the Mental Health Act. Yet the bill never made it to the House, due to more pressing legislation. According to parliamentary sources, it is still waiting in the queue but may get to be discussed in the session that opens tomorrow.

Nevertheless, such a long gestation casts a shadow over Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi who, in one of his first speeches as Prime Minister, pointed at mental health as one of the areas he wanted to tackle first.