After Newtown, there is widespread concern that laws regarding mental-health services need reform. Two places to start are the laws governing involuntary hospitalization, and the restrictions placed on communication with a patient's family.
Across the U.S. today, federal and state laws give people with mental illness the right to decide when, where, how, and if they will receive care. Yet some serious mental illnesses (such as schizophrenia or mania) can make it difficult for those affected to assess the reality of their own experiences or their need for treatment.
An individual with a mental illness that interferes with his judgment, self-interest, self-preservation and safety represents a profound challenge for families and clinicians. Doctors have remarked that when patient rights exceed truly necessary protections, individuals with mental illness can "die with their rights on." Sometimes they may harm others along the way.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
"The Tragedy of Mental-Health Law"
In the January 11, 2013 Wall Street Journal:
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Anyone who opposes reform needs to try the current laws on in their own lives.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as one who now KNOWS.
Having looked over Obama's proposals for gun control I have to wonder if his ultimate plan is to have all of us gun owners declared mentally ill and to lock us up for our own good...
ReplyDeleteYou think we have a national debt problem now, imagine 100 million new hospital beds.
ReplyDeleteWhen has Obama given a damn about debt? and you assume that these will be legitimate mental health facilities. that does not necessarily follow... they could just as easily be work camps like China uses.
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