New Law And Ethics In Mental Health Advance Directives

The recognition of positive rights and the growing impact of human rights principles has recently orchestrated a number of reforms in mental health law, bringing increasing entitlement to an array of health services. In this book, Penelope Weller considers the relationship between human rights and mental health law, and the changing attitudes which have led to the recognition of a right to demand treatment internationally. Weller discusses the ability of those with mental health problems to use advance directives to make a choice about what treatment they receive in the future, should they still be unable to decide for themselves. Focusing on new perspectives offered by the Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Weller explores mental health law from a variety of international perspectives including: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, where policies differ depending on whether you are in England and Wales, or Scotland. These case studies indicate how human rights perspectives are shifting mental health law from a constricted focus upon treatment refusal, towards a recognition of positive rights. The book covers topics including: refusing treatment new approaches in human rights international perspectives in mental health law the right to demand treatment. The text will appeal to legal and mental health professionals as well as academics studying mental health law, and policy makers.

This volume gives an overview on the currently debated ethical issues regarding advance directives from an international perspective. It focuses on a wider understanding of the known and widely accepted concept of patient self-determination for future situations. Although advance directives have been widely discussed since the 1980s, the ethical bases of advance directives still remain a matter of heated debates. The book aims to contribute to these controversial debates by integrating fundamental ethical issues on advance directives with practical matters of their implementation. Cultural, national and professional differences in how advance directives are understood by health care professions and by patients, as well as in laws and regulations, are pinpointed.

An advance directive is a way of making a person's views known if he or she should become mentally incapable of giving consent to treatment, or making informed choices about treatment, at some future time. Advance Directives in Mental Health is a comprehensive and accessible guide for mental health professionals advising service users on their choices about treatment in the event of future episodes of mental illness, covering all ideological, legal and medical aspects of advance directives. Jacqueline Atkinson explains their origins and significance in the context of mental health legislation and compares advance directives in mental health with those in other areas of medicine like dementia or terminal illness, offering a general overview of the differences in the laws of various English-speaking countries. She explores issues of autonomy and responsibility in mental health and gives practical advice on how to set up, implement and change advance directives. The book offers a useful overview of advance directives and is a key reference for all mental health professionals as well as postgraduate students, lawyers who work with mentally ill people, service users and their families and carers.

International human rights law challenges core tenets of mental health law, policy and practice. This book explores this challenge.

This book provides an important critique of mental health law and practice in China, with a focus on involuntary detention and treatment. The work explores China’s mental health law reform regarding treatment decision-making in the new era of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It adopts a socio-legal approach, not only by undertaking a comprehensive desk-based analysis of the reforms introduced by China’s Mental Health Law (MHL) but also examining its implementation based on evidence from practice. The book seeks to investigate whether China’s first national MHL takes a step closer to the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on mental health treatment decision-making, and, if not, why not? The book will be of interest to those working in the areas of mental health law and policy, medical law and disability, human rights law, and Asian Studies.

The debate about whether mental health law should be abolished or reformed emerged during the negotiations of the Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and has raged fiercely for over a decade. It has resulted in an impasse between abolitionists, States Parties, and other reformers and a literature which has devolved into 'camps'. Mental Health Law: Abolish or Reform? aims to break new ground by cutting through the confusion using the tools of human rights treaty interpretation backed by a deep jurisprudential analysis of core CRPD concepts - dignity (including autonomy), equality, and participation - to gain a clearer understanding of the meaning of the CRPD and what it requires States Parties to do. In doing so, it sets out the development of mental health law and is unique in tracing the history of the abolitionist movement and how nad why it has emerged now. By digging deeper into the conceptual basis of the CRPD and developing the 'interpretive compass' based on those three core CRPD concepts, the book aims to flesh out a broader vision of disability rights and move the debate forward by evaluating the three main abolition and reform options. Drawing on jurisprudential and multi-disciplinary research from philosophy, medicine, sociology, disability studies, and history, it argues compassionately and sensitively that mental health law should not be abolished, but should instead be significantly reformed to minimize coercion and maximize the support and choices given to persons with mental impairments to realize all of their CRPD rights.