Consent to Psychiatric Treatment for Informal Patients: College Advice to Psychiatrists: Report of the Working Party on the Mental Health Act

This paper is one of two considering certain aspects of the Mental Health Act, 1959, in relation to subnormal patients; it is based on a report of a Working Party submitted to the Council of the British Psychological Society and is published with the Society's approval. (The second paper (Mittler and Castell, 1964) considers plans for hospital and community care.)

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Consent to Treatment: Legal and Ethical Aspects

Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists ◽

10.1192/s0140078900012463 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 5 (11) ◽

pp. 207-209

Author(s):

Paul Bowden

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Public Policy ◽

Mental Disorder ◽

Medical Officer ◽

Working Party ◽

Ethical Aspects ◽

Mental Health Act ◽

Consent To Treatment ◽

Patient’S Will ◽

Policy Committee

In anticipating the consultative paper A Review of the Mental Health Act, 1959 the College's Public Policy Committee prepared a report in 1974 (News and Notes, October, November 1974). The second of six points covered in the report related to compulsory detention and treatment. It reads:The Working Party are firmly of the view that compulsory powers should include the power to treat patients compulsorily for any form of mental disorder, but has doubts as to how far certain types of treatment should be applied on the sole authority of the Responsible Medical Officer against the patient's will or when he is incapable of giving consent.

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The mental capacity tribunal under the model law: what are we arguing about?

International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law ◽

10.19164/ijmhcl.v0i20.243 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 55

Author(s):

Robert Robinson

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychiatric Treatment ◽

Dental Health ◽

Legal Framework ◽

Mental Illnesses ◽

Health Law ◽

Mental Health Law ◽

Mental Health Act ◽

Model Law ◽

Serious Mental Illnesses

It would be a mistake to think of mental health law as a generic form of law directed at a particular class of people, those described as suffering from mental disorders. If a person who has a mental disorder will accept treatment, whether or not they have the capacity to consent to it, there is in general no need to have recourse to mental health law. The Mental Health Act 1983 (‘MHA’) exists for the specific purpose<br />of regulating, and ultimately adjudicating upon, the conflict between a person who objects to receiving psychiatric treatment and the professionals on whom the law confers powers of compulsion. But, as advocates of a capacity-based legal framework would surely agree, it is not the existence of mental health law that gives rise to this conflict. That we have a Mental Health Act but not, say, a Dental Health Act is explained by features characteristic of serious mental illnesses which are not, by and large, found in other medical conditions.

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A Study of Competence to Consent to Treatment in a Psychiatric Hospital*

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/070674379203700306 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 37 (3) ◽

pp. 179-182 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

B. F. Hoffman ◽

J. Srinivasan

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychiatric Hospital ◽

Acute Treatment ◽

Psychiatric Treatment ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Current Definition ◽

Mental Health Act ◽

Consent To Treatment ◽

Assessment Of Competence ◽

Reasonable Test

Sixty patients admitted to an acute treatment ward in a provincial psychiatric, hospital were assessed for their competence to consent to psychiatric treatment. A semi-structured interview was used to determine whether they met none, some or all of the four necessary criteria for competence outlined in the Mental Health Act of Ontario. Only 21 of the 60 patients (37%) met all four criteria necessary for a patient to be considered competent to make their own decisions regarding psychiatric treatment. The study outlines the major difficulties in the assessment of competence to consent to psychiatric treatment. Our findings suggest that 74% of patients found incompetent using the current definition in the MHA (Ontario) would fail almost any reasonable test. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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Recent Trends in Mental Health Services in Italy: An Analysis of National and Local Data

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/070674379303800308 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 38 (3) ◽

pp. 195-202 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Domenico De Salvia ◽

Angelo Barbato

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Services ◽

Health Services ◽

Psychiatric Treatment ◽

National Level ◽

Community Services ◽

Local Data ◽

Case Register ◽

Mental Hospitals ◽

Mental Health Act

This paper reviews trends in Italian mental health services after the implementation of the 1978 Mental Health Act. Data available at the national level on public and private inpatient services, community mental health centres, residential and day care facilities are presented and discussed. Findings from two case-register areas, where comprehensive community services according to the Mental Health Act have been implemented, are discussed. Public mental hospitals are no longer used for psychiatric treatment, except for a small number of long stay patients. General hospital psychiatric units are the only setting in the public sector where psychiatric patients can be admitted. In private mental hospitals, the number of residents has decreased, while admissions have remained stable. However, community services are unevenly distributed and residential facilities are generally lacking. Little is known about quality of care provided, although data from some pilot studies are encouraging. Stable admission rates to forensic mental hospitals suggest that the criminalization of mentally ill has not increased. The effect of changing patterns of mental health care on suicide rates are discussed.

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