Legal and Ethical Considerations in Mental Health Work

This article provides an overview of the legal and ethical considerations in mental health work, including codes of practice, discrimination, dignity of risk, duty of care, human rights, informed consent, mandatory reporting, and more. It explains how these considerations are applied in organizations and individual practice. The article also discusses the importance of principles in mental health work and provides an overview of historical, current, and emerging models of understanding mental illness in Australia and internationally. Additionally, it explores evidence-based recovery, including research and personal recovery experience, and highlights key programs, services, and supports available to people with mental illness.

Question 1
 In 100 words (for each) briefly explain the legal and ethical considerations
(international, national, state/ territory and local) for mental health work, and how these
are applied in organisations and individual practice:
o codes of practice
o discrimination
o dignity of risk
o duty of care
o human rights
o informed consent
o mandatory reporting
o practice standards
o privacy, confidentiality and disclosure
o policy frameworks
o records management
o rights and responsibilities of workers, employers and individuals accessing the
service
o specific mental health legislation and its impact on individual workers
o work role boundaries—responsibilities and limitations
o work health and safety

INTRODUCTION
Health care refers to the organised medical care which is offered to people in need. There has been
a tremendous rise in the healthcare services due to the changing health demographics and higher
life expectancy (Okon and Webb, 2014). The organisation which is considered for this report is
Australian health care system which focuses on providing several medical facilities for the customers
like health insurances, hospitals, etc. This report will concentrate on explaining legal and ethical
considerations in international, national and local territory for mental health work. It will explain the
importance of principles of mental health work. The report will provide an over view on the
historical, current and emerging models of understanding mental illness in Australia. It will explain
the evidence based recovery including research and personal recovery experience. The report will
also explain important programs, services and supports available to people with mental illness. The
last part, there will be an attempt to concentrate on strength based approaches and reflective
practices.
MAIN BODY
1. Explain the legal and ethical considerations (international, national, state/ territory and local) for
mental health work
• Codes of practice: Mental health professional need to be accountable which is the part of
legal & ethical consideration for their day to day work. Ethical issues around mental health care &
treatment would be examined includes principles of autonomy, beneficence and justice.
• Discrimination: Mental health professional are mainly required to consider ethical working
such as matter of an equality, togetherness and legal & monetary to those who are suffering with an
issue of the mental incapability (Wehmeyer and Shogren, 2016). Equality legislation is main
consideration here which attempts to encourage equal and fair treatment to all.
• Dignity of risk: This is the concept that helps to outlines how person must have that freedom
as legal and ethical consideration to takes on decision and built choices that will help to expose
themselves to a level of risk. A more sophisticated approach should takes dignity of the risk as a
fundamental principle or practice of the mental care.
• Duty of care: The principle of duty of care states that one must have an obligation to get
away an acts or omission, which could be reasonably foreseen to injure of harm other people. This
means that one must anticipate for own client and takes care to protect coming from harm coming
to them.
• Human rights: In mental health sector, legal & ethical consideration of a human right such as
right to ask, right to treat and right to information are some of the consideration, which play
necessary role in protecting and respecting an individual’s demand of patient in mental care.
• Informed consent: Obtaining informed consent for medical treatment for participation in
medical research and participation in teaching exercises which will patient who is suffering with an
issue of mental inefficiency to occur (Tondora and. et. al., 2014). Consent of a person and family is
required to taken here before any crucial progression.
• Mandatory reporting: In mental care, health care professionals are required to inform family
or neighbour of person who is suffering with critical issues of mental. Mandatory reporting is
necessary to be done using legal and ethical communication channel.

• Practice standards: The practice standard are aimed to: an individual professionals, agencies
and services. The five national professional bodies representing psychiatry, psychology, social work,
nursing and occupational therapy are some of an ethical and legal consideration to be considers
while in mental health care.
• Privacy, confidentiality and disclosure: Privacy and confidentiality are two common used
words (Roberts and Zhang, 2016). Thus, Australian medical association’s code of an ethics needs
medical practitioner’s to maintain patients confidentiality and secrecy. Officer of the privacy
commissioner must do inspection of regulation followed to maintain privacy and also confidentiality.
• Policy frameworks: In this, mental & health care policy act, 1987 which was implemented in
parliament of the Australia to protect and also give out support to service users using supervision
policies (Spaulding-Givens and Lacasse, 2015). These policies are applied using framework with
defined values of an each framework.
• Records management: In mental health care, records are necessary to be kept for every
patient with complete knowledge of their age, supervision and check-up and also foreseen. In this,
ethical consideration such as formal working, truth and fair practice is necessary.
• Rights and responsibilities of workers, employers and individuals accessing service: In mental
health organisation, worker, employer as well as individual are required to supervise the premises
where treatment is being offered to patients and this will be monitored using complete checklist.
This will assure safety of the working environment.
• Specific mental health legislation and its impact on individual workers: In mental health
legislation, mental health & protection act, 2004 there is a restriction on any worker to do informed
working in care premises. This would led workers to do their worker properly and be loyal to mental
services.
• Work role boundaries and its responsibilities and limitations: In mental health care, worker
are to be loyal and prejudice on their respective roles to treat and takes care people as defined in
their profile. They have controlled by their own boundaries. Responsibility is to be loyal and
limitations are incorrect intention to be serve.
Question 2
 In 100 words (for each) briefly explain each of the values and principles in the mental
health sector:
o recovery
o recovery oriented practice
o health promotion and prevention
o holistic approach
o empowerment/ disempowerment
o access and equity
o early intervention
o rights

o social justice and inclusion
o citizenship
2. Briefly explain each of the values and principles in the mental health sector
• Recovery: In mental health care, principle of recovery means gaining and retaining hope,
engagement in an active life, personal autonomy, social identity and meaning & purpose in life and
positive sense in self.
• Recovery oriented practice: The purpose of recovery oriented mental health practice is to
ensure that the mental health services are being delivered in a way that it helps to support recovery
of mental health service users.
• Health promotion and prevention: Mental health promotion is an integral part of all mental
health check. Health practitioner must use mental health promotion and other primary prevention
and simultaneously make attempts to build resilience’s in communities, groups or an individual’s
(Slade and. et. al., 2014).
• Empowerment/ disempowerment: Empowerment of an individual is intended to help them
adopt self-determination and autonomy, exert more influences on social and political decision
making processes and gain increased self-esteem.
• Access and equity: This is governed by principle of high relevance mental health disorder
depression and anxiety interchangeably (Reupert and. et. al., 2015). It also impacts on culturally and
linguistically diverse CALD committees.
• Early intervention: The principles and values of an early intervention for mental illness is
comprises of: lower risk of relapse, reduced vocational/developmental disruption and also less
stressful assessment and treatment.
• Social justice and inclusion: This core principle would comprises of people with mental illness
issues wants and should be able to enjoy social, economic and educational opportunities a everyone
else.
Question 3
 Provide an overview of the historical, current and emerging models of understanding
mental illness in Australia and internationally. (500 words)
3. Provide an overview of the historical, current and emerging models of understanding mental
illness in Australia and internationally
The historical and emerging model of an understanding mental illness in the Australia has faced
mixed reviews when it comes to playing a crucial role in mental illness. From last 1980 to 1990,
scaling down/closing of psychiatric institution. Considering the historical times, there were a few of
general hospitals and too had limited facilities which resulted in improper treatment. But at present,

people are not admitted to these institutions until they are well managed (Shogren and. et. al.,
2015). Also, in current time period, people receiving care within own family and community setting.
This is also comprises of least restrictive in an environment possible and also mainstreaming.
Question 4
 What is evidence based recovery including research and personal recovery
experience? (400 words)
4. Evidence based recovery including research and personal recovery experience.
Evidence based recovery are the certain practices which carry the primary influence in the health
care industry. The evidence based recovery approaches include the research and personal recovery
experiences. It is the set of practices which effectively integrates the best research evidence with
clinical expertise, cultural competence and importance of the individuals who are indulge in
receiving the services. It helps mental health community in gather sufficient evidence which has not
been provided earlier. Evidence based treatment are related with the disorder such as PTSD, anxiety,
depression, etc. The Australian health care services are concerned with the various evidence models.
• Scientific research helps in determining the action and strategies which works best.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is very effective and essential for different types of disorders and
addiction. This model is highly effective and in health care services of Australia the use of evidence
based practices is increasingly used (Muller, Kirby and Yardley, 2015). By adopting such practices, the
clinicians provides highly and specially trained persons helps the individuals in becoming mentally
effective and efficient. There are several components of evidence based practices and some of the
them are discussed below:
• Psychoeducation: Under this component, the clinicians present the subject matter which is
related to the mental health of the patients and the issues related to it in the form of warning signs,
symptoms, etc. The main purpose behind this is to gain self-awareness among the patients,
influencing them to identify their needs and further useful in defining the problematic areas.
• Skill training: Under the component of skill training, the individuals provide training to the
patients regarding different symptoms by using several mechanisms and distress tolerance skills. The
health care organisation practices the different training regarding the skills so that they will be
prepared for triggers.
• Maintenance and relapse: Under this, when the health care organisation successfully
prepares the patients regarding the different kind of symptoms then the organisations are prepared
for the discharge or termination of the patients (Leitan and. et. al., 2015)
Question 5
 Explain some of the key programs, services and supports available to people with
mental illness. (500 words)
5. Key programs, supports and services available to people with mental illness.

Mental illness is increasing in the present atmosphere. This is specially increasing among the adults
and youngsters who indulge themselves in the different and wrong practices. Apart from this, the
increasing tension regarding the career and studies is leading to depression, anxiety, anger, fear, etc.
Therefore, it becomes essentially important to prepare various programs and support systems which
will help the individuals and patients to cope up with such mental illnesses. For this, the health care
organisations are introducing program and support systems and they are discussed below:
• The health organisation will organise family events where the patients will be required to
participate in various games with their family members. Such games will build the patients relation
with their family and thus, they will get support from the family which will help in improving their
mental illness.
• The health organisation will organise different types of camps such that the camps will make
patients deal with nature. When patients will be surrounded by nature then this will develop their
mental ability and contributes in improving their health (Howe and Dweck, 2016).
• The patients will be involved in counselling. The health organisation will organise different
counselling sessions for the patients where the counsellors will help in understanding the issues and
problems faced by the patients. Furthermore, they will develop a proper solutions for them which
will help in removing their mental illness.
• The health organisation will recommend the different yoga and meditation strategies that
will help patients in making their mind calm and patient. When patients will do meditation everyday
then they will feel refresh and peace in their mind.
• Every patients require emotional and moral support. This is because it helps them in sharing
whatever they have in their mind and by sharing that they will feel relax and their mind will be cool
down which improves their mental illness (Hamm and. et. al., 2018).
• There are several patients who are adults and young people who are struggling for
developing their career. Due to stronger competition in the education, it becomes difficult for them
to adopt the right career path. So, they will be required to attend various educational institution
programs that will help them in learning new courses which can help them in building their future.
Thus, this will contribute in enhancing and developing their overall mental illness.
• The Australian health organisation are also providing the services of telephone and online
health services. In such services, the patients or their family members can contact on phone or
online which will provide the respective assistance carer that will understand and improve the health
of the mentally suffering individual (Croft and Parish, 2016). The mental illness is common in aged
people as well, where the most important aspect is loss of memory or short term memory loss. In
such cases, the health organisations provides the care taker and nurses that will provide them
complete care and service for 24 hours.
Question 6
 What are strengths-based approaches? (250 words)
6. Strength based approaches.

The strength based approaches are concerned with the providing the establishment for social work.
This concept is a work practice theory that strongly emphasis on individuals self determination and
strength. These approaches are adopted by the health organisations which makes the individual
assess and evaluate the best attributes which are carried on by them. This makes individual and
patients understand that they are the best in whatever manner they are. It defines that every
individual is best in their own way and they do not need to adopt the attributes of other individuals
in order prove themselves as best. This concept is very helpful in identifying the limitation and
restrictions of the different factors which are stopping the growth of the individual. This approach is
very helpful in educating the individuals on various aspects like giving attention to the words and
languages. It helps in developing the imagination to the individual through which they can imagine
and experience the dream of future. Thus, this is type of creating positivity in the minds of the
patients which ultimately supports in developing the suitable qualities and attributes (Boardman and
Roberts, 2014). When the feeling of positivity is build inside the patient then this helps in creating
favourable surroundings for them and they see the world in a more suitable and appropriate
manner. Therefore, this is regarded as the collaborative procedure wherein the patients are assisted
by different services and the services are supported thereof.
Question 7
 What is reflective practice? Explain its role in underpinning ongoing learning,
growth and
7 What is reflective practice? Explain its role in underpinning ongoing learning, growth and good
practice.
Reflective practice is the form of practice which cover discussion on first person context such as I,
me and myself. This is helpful for health professionals who wants to carry on learning through-out
their entire lives (Seong and. et. al., 2015). An act of reflection is based on great way to increase
confidence and become a most proactive and qualified professionals. In the health & mental care
sector role of reflective practice for health care professional is highly focused on bringing skill and
competencies of that person at one common place to deliver’s out best for welfare and also social
care work in defined way or manner.
Its role is to gain underpinning benefits in learning, growth and good practices to makes
mental & health work with greater efforts and accomplishing self-development and also for others.
Question 8
 In 100 words (for each) briefly explain the various techniques for communication and
motivational interviewing/ counselling:
o active listening
o attending skills, use of body language, non-verbal communication
o paraphrasing

o reflecting feelings
o open and closed questioning or probing
o summarising
o reframing
o exploring options
o normalising statements
8. Techniques for communication and motivational interviewing / counselling
Below mentioned are some of the most important techniques for communication and
motivational interviewing / counselling:-
Active listening- It is a technique related to listening to other’s opinions and views. Eventually, the
listener should completely concentrate, understand about what is being said by others. In the
context of communication, interview and counselling, active listening plays an important role
(Hamm, 2018). If two persons are communicating with each other, then the person who is listening
should be careful about what is said by another person. Same as in interview and counselling, the
active listening is important.
Attending skills- The attending skills are those skills which are related to the understanding about
what the patients are experiencing and showing the non verbal gestures during the counselling
period. So basically, these skills are helpful in the counselling session. In the absence of this skill, it
will be difficult for the counsellor to understand whether patient is understanding the concept or
not. In Australian mental care system, these skills are necessary for the patients to attend all the
health improvement seminars.
Communication- The communication can be defined as a kind of process which is related to the
sharing of ideas, opinions and view by one person to another. There are different ways of
communication which are verbal, non verbal, written, formal and visual communication. Majorly two
types of communication are used: verbal and non verbal. The former is related to the use of sounds
and words to express the opinions and is suitable in interviews. On the other hand, the latter is
associated with the non linguistic transfer of opinion and views. It has important role in community
mental care system to set an effective communication between doctor and patient.
Paraphrasing- It is a technique related to the restructuring any statement or passage with the help of
different words. This skill can be useful in the community mental healthcare industry for those
announcements which are in technical form and hard to understand by the patients. Due to this, it
will be easy for the patients and employees to understand.

Open and closed questioning- There are two types of questions which are open and close ended. The
open ended questions are those questions which cannot be answered in “Yes” or “No” while close
ended questions are those questions which are replied in “Yes or No”. Some examples of these
questions in community mental care industry are when a doctor asks to patient: How are you feeling
now? Then answer would be in Yes or No.
Summarising- This is related to the giving a statement of the main points on any particular topic
(Croft and Parish, 2016). The main purpose of summarising is to providing idea about any detailed
concept. In respect of Australian mental care system, prescription of doctor to the patient can be
summarized in a short form.
Reflecting feelings- This can be defined as a process of determining the feelings and emotions of a
person's verbal and non verbal reaction. This is being used by the community workers to restate and
explore the patient’s feeling. In context of Australian mental care system, it is essential for the
doctors to have these skills to understand feelings of patient and providing treatment accordingly.
Re-framing- This can be defined as the process of viewing and feeling the ideas, opinions, views to
get the positive alternatives. In mental care industry, re-framing can be beneficial to re-frame the
health issues of mentally ill patients so that effective treatment can be possibly given by the doctor.