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Ethical challenges to mental health act
Ethical challenges to mental health act
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Introduction:
The right to mental health is a fundamental human right. The World Health Organization reflected this right as the utmost achievable standard of health in its constitution of 1946. In 1991, the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution embraced the “Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care”. This doctrine constituted the foundation of devising mental health strategies around the world including Australia. The United Nations in 2007 formulated “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”; a treaty to promote, protect and ensure the rights and freedoms of people with disabilities. Mental health in NSW is governed under the NSW mental health act which came into operation in 2007.
Ethics of involuntary management:
The NSW mental health act sanctions involuntary assessment of people who are suspected to be mentally unwell. Critics claim that involuntary assessment and treatment under the mental health act is immoral. They maintain it to be in contradiction of the basic human rights and implicate infringement of civil independence. This argument gains further strength if after a comprehensive evaluation the individual is not found to be mentally unwell or necessitating to be involuntary managed. Cutler, Smith, Wand, Green, Dinh and Gribble (2013, pp. 544-549) in their research at Prince Alfred Hospital emergency department found that only 27% of the people scheduled by ambulance officers under the NSW mental health act ultimately ended up with an involuntary psychiatric admission [1]. Thus, certification of being “mentally ill” was a poor predictor of involuntary psychiatric admissions. This leads to a serious query whether the involuntar...
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.... Patfield, M. (2006), The ‘mentally disordered’ provisions of New South Wales mental health act 1990: their ethical standing and effect on services, Australasian Psychiatry, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 263-266.
7. Eastman, N. Mental health law: civil liberties and the principle of reciprocity, British Medical Journal, Vol. 308, No. 6920, pp. 43-45.
8. Sachdev, P. S. and Sachdev, J. (2005), Long-term outcome of neurosurgery for the treatment of resistant depression, The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 478-485.
9. Awan, N. R., Lozano, A. and Hamani, C. (2009), Deep brain stimulation: current and future perspectives, Neurosurgical Focus, Vol. 27, No. 1, p. 2.
10. Ryan, C. (2010), An open letter to all members of New South Wales Parliament, Sydney, viewed 15 May 2014, http://www.piac.asn.au/sites/default/files/Open_Letter.Dec_3.pdf.
In the book Crazy in America by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, she illustrated examples of what people with mental illness endure every day in their encounters with the criminal justice system. Shayne Eggen, Peter Nadir, Alan Houseman and Joseph Maldonado are amongst those thousands or more people who are view as suspected when in reality they are psychotic who should be receiving medical assistance instead, of been thrown into prison. Their stories also show how our society has failed to provide some of its most vulnerable citizens and has allowed them to be treated as a criminals. All of these people shared a common similarity which is their experience they went through due to their illness.
Along with this the question is raised about the morality of this new law. Many mental health professionals raise the question of whether or not they should be required to report the m...
Forcing someone to take medication or be hospitalized against their will seems contrary to an individual’s right to refuse medical treatment, however, the issue becomes complicated when it involves individuals suffering from a mental illness. What should be done when a person has lost their grasp on reality, or if they are at a risk of harming themselves or others? Would that justify denying individuals the right to refuse treatment and issuing involuntary treatment? Numerous books and articles have been written which debates this issue and presents the recommendations of assorted experts.
House of Representatives. (1965, April 29). Retrieved March 16, 2014, from Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates: http://www.dva.gov.au/commems_oawg/commemorations/education/Documents/avw_topic1.pdf
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 states that in order to protect the rights of individuals who don’t have the capacity to make their own decisions they an independent Mental capacity Advocate is put in place to learn as much as possible about the individuals and act in their best interests.
Leo, R. A. (2009, September). Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
Continuing budget cuts on mental health care create negative and detrimental impacts on society due to increased improper care for mentally ill, public violence, and overcrowding in jails and emergency rooms. Origins, of mental health as people know it today, began in 1908. The movement initiated was known as “mental hygiene”, which was defined as referring to all things preserving mental health, including maintaining harmonious relation with others, and to participate in constructive changes in one’s social and physical environment (Bertolote 1). As a result of the current spending cuts approaching mental health care, proper treatment has declined drastically. The expanse of improper care to mentally ill peoples has elevated harmful threats of heightened public violence to society.
...a and Mental Illness • Social Justice Solutions." Socialjusticesolutions.org, 2012. Web. 13 Jan 2014. .
The United States of America, we have a plethora of laws, those of which may vary in importance; however, the current laws attending to the mentally ill do not suffice. Currently the most justifiable laws for this group are the Constitutional Guidelines, which state
Critical to understanding the extent of the problem is a clear definition of mentally ill, “a person suffering from mental illness and, owing to that illness, there are reasonable grounds for believing that care, treatment or control of the person is necessary for the person’s own protection from serious harm, or for the protection of others from serious harm” [Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW)]. Noting that the statute specifies the ‘control’ of this group which adds to the notion that people with mental health problems are inherently more dangerous members of our society. Furthermore mental health problems within the prison system (inmate population) are estimated to be three to four times higher than in the general Australian popula...
Corrigan, Watson and Ottati (2003) argue this strong stigma has legitimized a historically inequitable system of treatment for those with mental illness. As far back as the Middle Ages, the mentally ill were sent to prisons because they were perceived as dangerous. Beginning in the 19th century, they were transitioned to asylums and hospitals due to the widely held belief that they were not only dangerous, but also i...
... G. (2007). Overview of psychiatric ethics V: Utilitarianism and the ethics of duty. Australasian Psychiatry, 15950, 402-410. Doi:10.1080/10398560701439640. Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.
Law Commission, 'Criminal Liability: Insanity and Automatism', (Discussion Paper) para 1.61, citing/referring to; N Sartorius, “Stigma of Mental Illness: A Global View” in L B Cottler (ed), 'Mental Health in Public Health: the Next 100 Years' (2011) p 213-222 & H Schulze, 'Reducing the Stigma of Mental Illness: A Report from a Global Programme of the World Psychiatric Association' (2005)
In order to protect the patients’ identity and privacy, and in accordance with the NMC Code (2015) and Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998, anonymity and confidentiality will be maintained using a pseudonym for the case study. Jane, a 47-year-old female, detained on Section 3 of MHA (DH, 1983) within an Acute Inpatient Ward. As defined in the Mental Health Act Code of Conduct (DH, 2007) Section 3 of the MHA allows a patient to be detained for treatment within a hospital setting for a period of up to 6 months to allow for treatment programme (DH, 1983). Jane’s health had deteriorated over a period of seven days, after she had stopped taking her anti-psychotic medication weeks ago, resulting in the current episode of manic behaviour.
Teff, H. (1998) Liability for Negligently Inflicted Psychiatric Harm: Justifications and Boundaries, The Cambridge Law Journal 57,1, 92