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Compulsory Admissions of Patients with Mental Disorders in Europe: State of The Art on Ethical and Legislative Aspects

Globally, mental health legislation has been changing and evolving throughout time. Compulsory admission is when patients with mental disorders are admitted to a psychiatric unit against their own will to receive treatment. In Europe, as public attitudes and practices shifted, compulsory admission p...

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Autor principal: Wasserman, D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566265/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.197
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author Wasserman, D.
author_facet Wasserman, D.
author_sort Wasserman, D.
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description Globally, mental health legislation has been changing and evolving throughout time. Compulsory admission is when patients with mental disorders are admitted to a psychiatric unit against their own will to receive treatment. In Europe, as public attitudes and practices shifted, compulsory admission procedures were reformed to ensure patient rights and safety. Differences however exist for compulsory admission procedures between countries. In 2018, a survey was created and disseminated by the European Psychiatric Association Ethics Committee to National Psychiatric Associations within 40 European countries to learn more about the legislation, key actors involved, and reasons for admission. Results showed that approximately half of the responding countries required an independent medical expert, typically a psychiatrist, to be involved in the procedure. Most countries by law required the involvement of a court-appointed judge in making the decision about compulsory admission and to review the case after a certain period of time. All but one country have time limits on legal decisions for compulsory admission. Further, patients have the right to obtain legal counsel to assist them through the process of appeal or the decision in most countries. The primary reasons for admission were the patient being a danger to themselves or others. Despite continued efforts, stigma still surrounds mental health disorders. Public awareness and increased knowledge are needed to improve the perception of compulsory admissions. Moving forward, it is necessary to create educational courses, as well as written guidelines for key actors, to stimulate good practice and promote voluntary treatment (Wasserman et al. 2020; https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.79). DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships.
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spelling pubmed-95662652022-10-17 Compulsory Admissions of Patients with Mental Disorders in Europe: State of The Art on Ethical and Legislative Aspects Wasserman, D. Eur Psychiatry Abstract Globally, mental health legislation has been changing and evolving throughout time. Compulsory admission is when patients with mental disorders are admitted to a psychiatric unit against their own will to receive treatment. In Europe, as public attitudes and practices shifted, compulsory admission procedures were reformed to ensure patient rights and safety. Differences however exist for compulsory admission procedures between countries. In 2018, a survey was created and disseminated by the European Psychiatric Association Ethics Committee to National Psychiatric Associations within 40 European countries to learn more about the legislation, key actors involved, and reasons for admission. Results showed that approximately half of the responding countries required an independent medical expert, typically a psychiatrist, to be involved in the procedure. Most countries by law required the involvement of a court-appointed judge in making the decision about compulsory admission and to review the case after a certain period of time. All but one country have time limits on legal decisions for compulsory admission. Further, patients have the right to obtain legal counsel to assist them through the process of appeal or the decision in most countries. The primary reasons for admission were the patient being a danger to themselves or others. Despite continued efforts, stigma still surrounds mental health disorders. Public awareness and increased knowledge are needed to improve the perception of compulsory admissions. Moving forward, it is necessary to create educational courses, as well as written guidelines for key actors, to stimulate good practice and promote voluntary treatment (Wasserman et al. 2020; https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2020.79). DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships. Cambridge University Press 2022-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9566265/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.197 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Abstract
Wasserman, D.
Compulsory Admissions of Patients with Mental Disorders in Europe: State of The Art on Ethical and Legislative Aspects
title Compulsory Admissions of Patients with Mental Disorders in Europe: State of The Art on Ethical and Legislative Aspects
title_full Compulsory Admissions of Patients with Mental Disorders in Europe: State of The Art on Ethical and Legislative Aspects
title_fullStr Compulsory Admissions of Patients with Mental Disorders in Europe: State of The Art on Ethical and Legislative Aspects
title_full_unstemmed Compulsory Admissions of Patients with Mental Disorders in Europe: State of The Art on Ethical and Legislative Aspects
title_short Compulsory Admissions of Patients with Mental Disorders in Europe: State of The Art on Ethical and Legislative Aspects
title_sort compulsory admissions of patients with mental disorders in europe: state of the art on ethical and legislative aspects
topic Abstract
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566265/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.197
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