Legal Issues in Mental Health: Informed Consent and Confidentiality Concerns

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Module 1
Legal Issues in Mental Health
Good mental health entails a sense of self-worth, confidence and wellbeing. It enables to
comprehend and appreciate our daily lives, our environment and other people around us. Loss of
the sense of one’s welfare describes being mentally unwell (Roberts, 2018). Sometimes,
mentally unwell people need to be treated without their consent in cases where their well-being
or those of others are at risk. These are known as involuntary patients. On the other hand, a
voluntary patient is one who remains at a mental health care institution voluntarily for
observation or treatment or one who has been admitted by his or her guardian as a voluntary
patient (Watson et al., 2014).
Mental health laws relates to matters such as when an individual can be offered mental health
treatment, the operations of community treatment and inpatient treatment orders and the rights of
people with mental illnesses.The laws also identifies the key groups in mental health care which
include mental health professionals, mental health patients, mental health services referrers,
private psychiatric hospitals, non-governmental organizations as well as the persons supporting
mental health patients (Bellesheim, 2016).
People with mental health problems have a right to participate meaningfully in individual and
community activities without discrimination, social exclusion or stigma. Just like all other
Australians, they should be allowed access to literature and advocacy amenities to ensure that
they apprehend and are able to exercise the rights and responsibilities without prejudice. They
should have access to a wide range of mental and other general health services they require as
well as other facilities such as accommodation (Battams & Henderson, 2010). They should have

the ability to expect that their service providers will honor and uphold their rights and deliver the
proper standards of care fairly. Additionally, people with mental illnesses and mental health
problems have a right to be involved in decisions concerning their own individual treatment as
well as in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of mental health policies (Battams,
2016).
Informed Consent in Adult Psychiatry
Mental health nurses have a responsibility to plan and provide medical and nursing care to
individuals with a range of mental health issues. According to the law adults with mental health
problems have a right to be included in decision making about their care. However, there is a
dilemma on how to safeguard this ethical principle for these people. By definition, individuals
with mental illnesses are not certainly impaired for consent as they do not always seem to have
poor judgment and diminished cognizance (Amer, 2013). Informed consent is one of the most
fundamental aspects of best medical practice. Health professionals are thus required to obtain
informed consent from the patient before onset of intervention.
Informed consent is acquired after explicit explanation to the patient about the risks of and the
factors involved in treatment including the benefits and alternative options. This information
should be relevant to the patient and help him or her decide whether to undergo a particular
treatment or experiment. The health care provider therefore has a responsibility to inform the
patient of every single feature of the treatment no matter how sensitive it may seem. The
elements of informed consent include:
Voluntarism: the client or patient should be able to act voluntarily without being influenced by
another through coercion, manipulation or persuasion.