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At the margins of human rights and psychiatric care in North America
Author(s) -
Geller J. L.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.0902-4441.2000.007s020[dash]20.x
Subject(s) - statute , patients' rights , context (archaeology) , human rights , patient rights , law , position (finance) , fundamental rights , political science , psychiatry , medicine , business , health care , history , archaeology , finance
The roots and expanse of the rights of psychiatric patients in North America are broad and diverse. This paper focuses on four rights that are pushing at the contemporary margins of patients' rights. First, the right to treatment, a moral position casting about for legal grounding. Second, the rights of psychiatrically hospitalized patients, articulated in statutes, court decisions, organizational standards and patients' bills of right. Third, patient participation in treatment planning, a process involving both rights and responsibilities. Fourth, the right to involuntary outpatient treatment, a process sometimes viewed as a deprivation of and other times as an expansion of rights for patients. These rights are addressed in the context of the question, are we going in the proper direction?