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Compulsory admission of the mentally ill: adequacy of documentation
Author(s) -
Baxter Eion A.,
Spence Neil D.,
Goldney Robert D.,
Bennetts Keith J.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1986.tb101078.x
Subject(s) - documentation , statutory law , mentally ill , mental illness , mental health , mental health act , psychology , medical record , medicine , psychiatry , political science , law , computer science , programming language , radiology
ABSTRACT The issues that are involved in the compulsory detention and treatment of persons with mental illness are complex. There has been an improvement in the adequacy of documentation of such persons in the first five years of operation of the new South Australian Mental Health Act, 1976–1977. However, an appreciable proportion of documents still do not appear to comply adequately with the statutory requirements. This may be related not only to shortcomings in the medical documentation, but also to ambiguities and possible overlapping in the criteria for compulsory detention and treatment.