Forced Medication in Mental Health - Essay Example

Forced Medication in Mental Health Essay *** dear client, please do not submit thisyet. I’m checking for plagiarism. I will inform you once final paper is uploaded. Thanks. Introduction Most patients are admitted voluntarily, which implies they are eager to receive medication or treatment. Still, there are patients who are not willing to be admitted and treated. Mental health care practitioners adhere to their needs and demands unless patients are a threat to others or themselves. Psychiatry has been described as “virtually the only medical specialty that includes coerced, involuntary treatment” (Shally-Jensen, 2013, 368). Scholars in the nursing professions have emphasized the inconsistency and contradiction between forced medication or involuntary treatment and components of professional ethical guidelines. Ethical codes usually require freewill or constraint in the part of clients only when threat is probable and imminent. Other scholars firmly oppose this observed contradiction between nursing principles and involuntary treatment; they refer to the right of clients to treatment, not only his/her right to say no to medication, as an essential matter (Freckelton & Lesser, 2003). Yet others argue that taking a stand in this debate draws away the attention of mental health professionals from more crucial issues about the quality of mental health services. Judgments aside, for a large number of mental health professionals, exercising involuntary treatments or forcible medications has become an essential part of their professional obligations. These professionals may frequently admit clients under involuntary directives or assist court orders for outpatient treatment and medication (Hayes et al., 2007). Numerous professionals are now confronted with the challenge of discussing complicated and problematic decisions with clients who pursue treatment under court orders. Similarly, because forced medication for mental disorder is perhaps as persistent as mental disorder itself, numerous mental health clients with severe and chronic mental disorders will undergo such medication over the course of their disorder (Freckelton & Lesser, 2003). Usually, forced mental health procedures may be given as a ‘crisis stabilization’ type of hospitalization in case of probable threat to the client or to others (Shally-Jensen, 2013, 369). Several states are increasingly implementing outpatient authorized treatment that preferably administers ‘assisted treatment’ (Shally-Jensen, 2013, 369) with additional resources and further implications if treatment procedures are not followed. Moral and Ethical Issues of Forced Medication in Mental Health Care Mental disorder can be a dreadful misfortune affecting not just the patient but family members, communities, and the society as well. Numerous mentally ill individuals do not have the capacity to take care of or protect themselves, and they could be a threat to themselves or others. In Canada, custodians or substitutes should make treatment decisions for them. Making treatment decisions for those who have mental disorders raises several moral, ethical, and legal issues (Swartz & Swanson, 2004). Several of the disturbing questions are as follows (Devettere, 2010, 111): Is it moral to place the mentally ill in institutions against their will simply because they might harm themselves or others? Is it moral to force treatment on them, most especially drugs or surgery or shock treatments, against their will? Is their informed consent for treatment truly voluntary if we have made it clear to them that they will be confined to an institution if they do not accept the treatment? Mental disorder is an ambiguously defined concept. It includes a broad array of disorder from the fairly mild to severe, and the classifications applied by the American Psychiatric Association are quite broad that health care professionals have great latitude in making a diagnosis of patients’ behavioral patterns (Devettere, 2010, 111). This makes it particularly crucial to take into account the ethical or moral repercussions of involuntary treatment or forced medication of those with mental disorders. A common misunderstanding assumes that all those who have mental disorders are helpless and have lost the ability to make decisions for themselves. This is clearly a misconception. People with mental disorders still have the ability to make decisions for themselves. Some mental disorders do not fully damage the ability to make decisions, or, if they do, this condition is just momentary, and episodes of ability remain in which the client is capable of making decisions about treatment (Hayes et al., 2007). Furthermore, a mental disorder that damages a client’s ability to make particular decisions does not automatically damage the ability to make all kinds of health care decisions. Therefore, it is ill-advised to suppose that all those who have mental disorders have lost the capacity to make decisions about their treatment. Instead, the decision-making ability of mentally ill individuals should be diagnosed accurately (Mickle, 2012). Specifically, according to Carney (2003), the health care professional will determine whether the individual is capable of understanding vital information, assessing the disorder and potential treatments, explaining the effect that the different treatment alternatives could have, and providing consent willingly. Nevertheless, it is a fact that mental disorder usually does influcent the ability to make decisions about treatment and to providing consent freely. The disorder can weaken any of the three attributes of the ability to make decisions: ‘understanding, evaluation, and reasoning’ (Devettere, 2010, 112). For instance, in several types of schizophrenia, an individual could have an unchanging assumption that medications are actually venomous or that health care professionals are trying to deceive and lock him/her up. These thoughts hamper his/her capacity to make sense of the diagnosis and the possible actual effects of different treatment alternatives (Sharav, 2005). In other types of mental disorder, like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the individual’s capacity to assess an action can be lost because the disorder damages the individual’s capacity to be concerned about any of the purposes and endeavors in life that build a foundation for value judgments. Another example is manic bipolar disorder wherein reasoning ability can be altered by creating a completely impractical idea of possible courses of action (Devettere, 2010). Given these facts, health care professionals should evaluate each client thoroughly to verify decision-making ability. What is important is to stop assuming that once an individual has been diagnosed with a mental disorder a substitute or guardian should make every health care decision from then on (Swartz & Swanson, 2004). This attitude completely marginalizes and dispossesses an individual who maintains the ability to make health care decisions. Recently the population of hospitalized mentally ill individuals has declined considerably. Numerous factors contributed to this reduction in number, such as the discovery of medications that regulate or prevent the harmful symptoms of a mental disorder and the increasing realization that patients have volitional rights and must not be admitted unless completely necessary (Mossakowski, Kaplan, & Hill, 2011). However, decisions by substitutes to hospitalize mentally ill individuals should be made, and making such decisions is both legally and morally problematic. Forced medication is a violation of one’s liberty rights. Forced treatment is actually confinement. Denying a person of his/her right to live in the outside world is a serious limit on his/her life, and health care professionals require a justifiable basis for doing it (Mossakowski et al., 2011). There are two reasons commonly used when a substitute makes a decision to hospitalize a mentally ill individual involuntarily—the patient is a threat to others, or s/he is a danger to him/herself. Conclusions The conflict between liberty or freewill and the safety of other members of the community determine the episodic ebbing and flowing of mental health treatment in Canada and elsewhere. Forced medication has been a historical phenomenon, and it remains widespread today. It is hence vital that nurses and other health care professionals have an accurate understanding of the forms of involuntary treatments so as to develop appropriate and ethical care plans. Beyond merely being aware of different forms of involuntary treatment, it is essential for health care professionals to also be capable of communicating and negotiating the ethical and moral concerns that are provoked in circumstances where forced medication is used. Being exposed to circumstances that may be rough for nurses because of the incompatibility between professional or personal judgments and job responsibilities may lead nurses to suffer from an unfavorable feeling of confusion and ‘professional dissonance’. Therefore, further studies on nursing and forced medication are required. References Brophy, L., Campbell, J., & Healy, B. (2003) ‘Dilemmas in the Case Manager’s Role: Implementing Involuntary Treatment in the Community’, Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 10(1), 154+ Carney, T. 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(2006) ‘The Effect of Clinical Judgment in Decision-Making: The Mental Health Act 1986 (Vic.) and the Mental Health Review Board’, Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 8(1), 43+ Shally-Jensen, M. (2013) Mental Health Care Issues in America: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. Sharav, V.H. (2005) ‘Screening for Mental Illness: The Merger of Eugenics and the Drug Industry’, Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 7(2), 111+ Swartz, M. & Swanson, J. (2004) ‘Involuntary Outpatient Commitment, Community Treatment Orders, and Assisted Outpatient Treatment: What’s in the Data?’ Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 49(9), 585+ Watson, A., Corrigan, P., & Angell, B. (2005) ‘What Motivates Public Support for Legally Mandated Mental Health Treatment?’ Social Work Research 29(2), 87+ Read More