Legal Issues in Mental Health Nursing

This article discusses the legal issues surrounding mental health nursing, specifically focusing on involuntary hospitalization and medication refusal. It explores the existing laws in Australia regarding the detention and treatment of patients with mental disorders. The article highlights the need for clarity and equal rights for voluntary and involuntary patients, as well as the importance of providing treatment in the least restrictive environment. It also emphasizes the nurse's responsibility in educating patients about their legal rights and ensuring they receive accurate information about their medication.

Running head: LEGAL ISSUE 1
Nursing
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Legal issues in Mental heal nursing
Mental heal nursing
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Introduction
There is a long history of keeping patients under the lock over spurious reason. Here in
Australia, the case is no different.One day, as I was walking down a psychiatrist ward, I oversaw
an incident at one of the male wards. After inquiring further about the scuffles, I learned that one
of the patients had refused to take his medication and the security had been called upon to take
the patient into an isolation room and medication forcefully injected into his system. “If I had
been informed what the medication was and what it was for, I would have complied and hence
not created a scene” The patient complains. Cases of patients being forced to take medication, or
even being put into isolation against their will are no news in the country. According to data
from the Mental health services in Australia Web, 258300 admissions are made overnight in
private and private mental hospitals. Out of these, more than 1/3(36%) are admitted on
involuntary admission. From this, we project that the incidence of involuntary admission is on
the increase in the country.
About the law
According to Mendelson and Lin (2016), there exist three chief mechanisms of detaining
patients in hospitals; Mental health act, disability acts and guardianship act. All the admissions to
a mental facility are subject to the mental Health Act of 1983, which was recently amended to
the Mental Health Act of 2007. The act gives medical practitioners the power to detain, and treat
patent with mental disorders for the interest own health and safety for other citizens. Each state
and territory has enacted a law which calls for detention of psychiatrist patients deemed into the
risk of harming themselves or others to enable the provision of mental treatment. There are two
ways in which a patient can gain admission; voluntary admission and involuntary admission.

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Under the involuntary hospitalization, there are circumstances that can force a patient to legally
get involuntary hospitalization for mental illness or compelled to receive medication without the
contest of the patient. The person will be detained against will if a team of two or more doctors
finds the person mentally ill after critically examining and diagnosing the patient and both agree
it is necessary to detain the patient. A team of third party doctors may be necessary if the two
doctors don't come into agreement. One of the doctors must be a psychiatrist. For the patient to
be detained, he or she should be diagnosed with a mental disease, be in urgent need of treatment
and the person is not in the capacity to make own decision about own health care. The patient
should be detained for no longer than three working days. After this, a team of mental Health
Review Tribunal is called upon to assess the case of the patient if the detainee is held captivity
for more than two weeks (Beaupert & Gooding, 2017).
Legal issue
One of the fundamental flaws is the definition between voluntary and involuntary patient
and the unequal rights that are given to them. There lacks a general clarity splitting the line
between the voluntarily and the involuntary treatment; and in some cases a total absence of a
statutory cutline. In the country, the credit of the team of doctors assessing your condition,
whether or not to receive involuntary treatment, the length of time to be held and who can extend
the time remains under siege.
Holding a patient against own will or keeping them under isolation limits them from
attaining the least restrictive environment possible. Thereshould be law safeguarding patient’s
decision is respected and treatment among the psychiatrist patient is carried out under the least
restrictive environment possible. This also creates the possibility of the patient being
inappropriately treated.Rendering from Adams et al (2018), an Australian court identified the

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provision of the least restrictive environment as one of the major tools for motivating the patients
to recover from their mental illness. McSherry & Wilson (2015), also feel that such restrictions
should be abolished. Article 12 of the CRPD which defends on the right of persons with
disabilities also wants such people to enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others
Today, there exists a law often regarded ad patient's right to refuse medication.
According to the law, the patient has the legal right to medication refusal (Ryan et.al, 2015).
However, this changed when legalized that a mental patient who is involuntarily admitted did not
have the legal capacity to refuse medication. To the worse of it, this freedom has also been
restricted to voluntarily admitted patients who are being forced to take medication against their
will. Forcing the patient to take medication is barbaric and against human rights.
Nurse responsibilities
Every patient has right to medication. However, it is the role of the nurse to ensure that
the patients receive basic and accurate information regarding the medication (Potter et.al 2016).
Reading the legal issue discussed, it is the role of NMBA nurse to ensure the patient receive
substantial information regarding legal parameters surrounding treatment for mental illness. It is
the legal responsibility of nurse to educate the patient about the medication they are about to
receive, procedure, its benefit as well as the health repercussion if the patient fails to take the
medication.

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Conclusion
Legal parameters play important role in nursing. It is the role of NMBA nurse to
understand the legal parameter and extend the same in educating the patient in understanding
what the law says about their medication. Detaining patients, or offering them medication
against their will,is a stark and a shameful act in this modern era. For the legal issue discussed,
the law needs to be revised to cater for the issue. Finally, nurses who also care for the mentally
ill patients need also to critically understand the law and the legal responsibilities that implies to
their profession and as well act human by rising alarm where the law sounds to violate the will of
the patient so that the law can be amended effectively.

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References
Adams, J., Thomas, S. D., Mackinnon, T., &Eggleton, D. (2018). The risks, needs, and stages of
recovery of a complete forensic patient cohort in an Australian state. BMC
psychiatry, 18(1), 35.
Beaupert, F., Steele, L., & Gooding, P. (2017). Introduction to disability, rights and law reform
in Australia: Pushing beyond legal futures. Law in Context, 35(2), 1.
Data, G. A. C. Mental health services in Australia Web report Last updated: 03 May 2019.
McSherry, B., & Wilson, K. (2015). The concept of capacity in Australian mental health law
reform: Going in the wrong direction?. International journal of law and psychiatry, 40,
60-69.
Mendelson, D., & Lin, N. (2016). Mental Health Legislation (Civil) in Australia and China: A
Comparative Perspective.
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2016). Fundamentals of Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier
Health Sciences.
Ryan, C., Callaghan, S., &Peisah, C. (2015). The capacity to refuse psychiatric treatment: A
guide to the law for clinicians and tribunal members. Australian & New Zealand Journal
of Psychiatry, 49(4), 324-333.