Involuntary admission and treatment of patients with mental disorder
1Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital, Hunan Province Technology Institute of Psychiatry, Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha 410011, China
2Waikato Clinical School, University of Auckland, New Zealand
3University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Corresponding author: Xiaoping Wang. E-mail: xiaop6@126.com
Abstract
Despite the efforts of the World Health Organization to internationally standardize strategies for mental-health care delivery, the rules and regulations for involuntary admission and treatment of patients with mental disorder still differ markedly across countries. This review was undertaken to describe the regulations and mental-health laws from diverse countries and districts of Europe (UK, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Norway), the Americas (Canada, USA, and Brazil), Australasia (Australia and New Zealand), and Asia (Japan and China). We outline the criteria and procedures for involuntary admission to psychiatric hospitals and to community services, illustrate the key features of laws related to these issues, and discuss their implications for contemporary psychiatric practice. This review may help to standardize the introduction of legislation that allows involuntary admission and treatment of patients with mental disorders in the mainland of China, and contribute to improved mental-health care. In this review, involuntary admission or treatment does not include the placement of mentally-ill offenders, or any other aspect of forensic psychiatry.
Keywords
involuntary admission; involuntary treatment; mental-health legislation; compulsory admission; commitment criteria
