Psychiatric Hospitals in Ireland - Research Paper Example

The call for uniformity of care for psychiatric illnesses has been fostered by several legislations across countries, and the current trend is to foster care increasingly in the community in collaboration with the family [2]. Despite that, there are certain conditions where there is a need to detain the patient in the mental health hospitals with forceful and involuntary admission, where coercion plays an important role. Admission against the will of the patient is an ethically unsound area of practice; and therefore law directs the process.

Within the legal framework, the mental health professionals thus exercise their power to detain or incarcerate the patients with an adequate indication permitted by law. The problems or debates arise when there is observed diversity in psychiatric practice, and the heterogeneity of sociocultural environment and differences in professional attitudes towards mentally ill people, all may influence a decision regarding involuntary admission [3]. This has been contributed to by lack of reliable markers of psychiatric diagnoses and management plan for them.

The admission to a psychiatric healthcare facility in Ireland may be involuntary, although till now, the vast majority of such admissions are voluntary. Involuntary admission means the patient does not freely agree for the treatment or admission to an inpatient psychiatric unit. The other part of such admission may be that even though the patient agrees for a voluntary admission, there may be detention of these patients into the units in that they are not completely free to leave psychiatric care on their free will.

Thus this leads to a detention beyond volition, and detailed rules, regulations, and laws guide such principles. The Irish mental health policies regarding involuntary admission or detention are governed by the Irish Mental Health Act of 2001 and have been in full implementation since November 2006 and all psychiatric facilities including public and private are under its regulations. According to this act, the psychiatric hospitals and units need to be registered as approved psychiatric centres, and those hospitals and inpatient units which were providing care to people with psychiatric illnesses at the time of implementation of this law will be considered approved by November 2009.

The mental health act 2001 sets out the criteria for involuntary admission to these approved centres for persons suffering from mental disorders. This act also creates provision for independent review of the involuntary admissions of such persons [4].In a short summary, this act recommends involuntary admissions and detention in an approved psychiatric centre due to psychiatric disorder. The main scenarios or conditions that may cause involuntary admission are personality disorder, social deviance, drug addiction, and intoxication.

Although psychiatric patients have their own rights, this act implies that involuntary admission is for the patients' own interests in care and treatment through appropriate examination findings of the psychiatrists, where all information will be revealed to the patients, and in case of incoherence, the tribunal may review such decisions where sometimes the court of law may interfere if appeals are made. These principles are also