Psychiatry, Psychology and Law articles from April 2003

Psychiatry, Psychology and Law archives from April 2003

Detention, decisions and dilemmas: reviewing involuntary detention and treatment into the 21st century.(Editorial)
April 1, 2003... This edition of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law is edited jointly by Ian Freckelton and John Lesser, President of the Victorian Mental Health Review Board. John's involvement in this edition stems from a decision to publish in this issue edited...

Forced medication, patients' rights and values conflicts.
April 1, 2003... The philosophical positions known as libertarianism or liberalism, and paternalism or paternalism, in their application to treatment refusals are outlined. The author then discusses recent public policy governing the alleged right to refuse...

Mental health law in postmodern society: time for new paradigms?(Victoria)(Detention, Decisions and Dilemmas: Reviewing Involuntary Detention and Treatment into the 21st Century)
April 1, 2003... This article reviews the "rights" versus "access to treatment" debate in mental health law and policy. It asks, among other things, whether contemporary policy is compatible with civil rights standards, whether community-based care is adequate...

International human rights obligations and mental health review tribunals.(Australia)(Detention, Decisions and Dilemmas: Reviewing Involuntary Detention and Treatment into the 21st Century)
April 1, 2003... All Australian states and territories, as part of the first Mental Health Plan, agreed to enact legislation which complied with the United Nations Principles. As Victoria considers the possibility of updating its mental health legislation, it...

Mental health review tribunal decision-making: a therapeutic jurisprudence lens.(Australia)(Detention, Decisions and Dilemmas: Reviewing Involuntary Detention and Treatment into the 21st Century)
April 1, 2003... This article examines a series of commonly identified indicia for when patients should be involuntarily detained on an inpatient or outpatient basis. It distinguishes between actual criteria and other, de facto and under-recognised indicia for...

Insight: unpacking the concept in mental health law.
April 1, 2003... Insight has been described as self-awareness. Research indicates that the lack of insight may be a factor that is frequently used as a justification for not discharging people from psychiatric detention. This article will examine the...

An optimally rights recognising mental health tribunal - what can be learned from Australian jurisdictions.
April 1, 2003... The notion of universal rights for people with mental illness looks ludicrous on consideration of how different rights are depending on the state or territory. A person may or may not be able to challenge the use of ECT at a tribunal, ask the...

Competence to give informed consent to research participation in persons with schizophrenia and related psychosis.(Australia)
April 1, 2003... Over the last decade there has been escalating debate regarding the competency of patients with psychoses to give informed consent to participate in research. This debate has been made evermore complex by variations in the definition and...

The ritual environment of the mental health tribunal hearing: inquiries and reflections.(Australia)
April 1, 2003... Therapeutic outcomes of mental health tribunal proceedings depend in part on the quality of the hearing itself, on its success as a ritual performance. How can tribunals better develop emotional and symbolic environments for hearings that...

Command hallucinations and violence: implications for detention and treatment.
April 1, 2003... Individuals who experience hallucinations that instruct them to follow specific actions (command hallucinations) often feel under a powerful obligation to carry out these actions, sometimes with devastating consequences to themselves or others....

Compulsion of the detained: service, legal and ethical issues in the use of civil commitment in correctional settings in New Zealand.
April 1, 2003... The Mason Inquiry (Mason et al., 1998) established the service principle that people with a serious mental illness in prison in New Zealand have the same right of access to mental health services as anyone in the community. This includes the...

A new tribunal?(United Kingdom)(safeguard against improper admission under compulsory powers and unduly protracted detention)
April 1, 2003... Mental health review tribunals (MHRTs) were established under the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1959 (UK) as one of the "main safeguards against improper admission under compulsory powers" and "unduly protracted detention". (1) In the United Kingdom...

Determining dangerousness: whatever happened to the rules of evidence?(Australia)
April 1, 2003... To justify the indefinite detention of an individual convicted of a serious offence, the High Court of Australia has required expert evidence by a psychiatrist or psychologist to the effect that the individual is likely in the future to commit...

The new Mental Health Act in Tasmania (1996): a comparative review with the former Act (1963): "can they now die with their rights on?".
April 1, 2003... If not carried out accordingly the process of involuntarily detaining a person with mental illness can be seen as a gross invasion of their dignity and rights. This article will address the process of involuntary detention and focus on the...

Substance use in psychosis: what can be done about it?(Australia)
April 1, 2003... The use of alcohol and illicit substances is common among patients with schizophrenia. Whilst it is generally believed that the use of such agents is detrimental to mental health, and can worsen the longitudinal illness trajectory, little...

The scope for psychosocial treatments for psychosis.
April 1, 2003... The recent Australian Study on Low Prevalence Disorders (Jablensky et al., 2000) found that, whilst most Australians with a psychotic illness (91%) were taking medication, few were receiving adequate psychosocial support from mental health...

Dilemmas in the case manager's role: implementing involuntary treatment in the community.(Victoria)
April 1, 2003... Frontline non-medical practitioners in mental health services are frequently working as case managers with involuntary clients in the community who are subject to community treatment orders (CTOs). In this work they often experience tensions...

Judicial review of the meaning of "mental disorder".(New Zealand)
April 1, 2003... New Zealand has recently experienced its first successful judicial review of a discharge decision made by a mental health review tribunal acting under the civil commitment legislation, the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act...

Involuntary mental health treatment in the remote Northern Territory.
April 1, 2003... The role of the community management order (CMO) in the management of mental illness has been associated with controversy. There is uncertainty as to the effectiveness of such involuntary treatment. Review of outcomes of involuntary community...

The ACT Mental Health Tribunal: a different approach.(Australian Capital Territory)
April 1, 2003... This article outlines the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) statutory system for assisting people considered mentally ill or mentally dysfunctional. It provides a brief overview of the development of the ACT's Mental Health (Treatment and...

Powering - and empowering - through change: the Queensland Tribunal's experience of transition from old systems to new.
April 1, 2003... The Queensland Mental Health Review Tribunal which came into operation on 28 February 2002 has a critical role in giving effect to the underlying thrust of the Mental Health Act 2000 (Old), which has a focus on access to justice. This role has...

Recent research into arson (1992-2000): incidence, causes and associated features, predictions, comparative studies and prevention and treatment.
April 1, 2003... There are a large number of causes and associated features of fire-setting. These have been delineated both for adults and children in a profile. Family problems, personality problems and many other features cause some children and adults to...

Asked and answered: questioning children in the courtroom.
April 1, 2003... In the present experiment, we analysed court transcripts in which children aged 5 to 13 years provided the key evidence in sexual abuse trials. We developed two separate coding schemes for lawyers' questions and children's responses. Consistent...

Public opinion and criminal justice: emotion, morality and consensus.
April 1, 2003... The following article is a discussion of some of the findings of the first author's recent doctoral research on the public's reasoning about criminal justice. Psychosocial implications of the research are examined. Specifically, the discussion...

A review of approaches to forensic risk assessment in Australia and New Zealand.
April 1, 2003... Although there has been extensive research on risk assessment in mental health over the past decade, its practice internationally has not been fully investigated, The aim of this study was to describe the current status of risk assessment in...

Diverting mentally ill women away from prison in New South Wales: building on the existing system.
April 1, 2003... Women in prison suffer from mental illness at a rate significantly higher than their male counterparts. Many avenues for diversion exist in current New South Wales (NSW) law, but judges and magistrates have demonstrated a reluctance to utilise...

Relationship between criminal behaviour and mental illness in young adults: conduct disorder, cruelty to animals and young adult serious violence.
April 1, 2003... Many mental health professionals working with children and juveniles either do not have the training in psychological testing techniques, or sufficient diagnostic time to recognise significant indicators of future serious violent offending. The...

Knowledge and attitudes of lawyers regarding offenders with intellectual disability.
April 1, 2003... People with an intellectual disability appear to be over represented in the criminal justice system and have characteristics that may render them particularly vulnerable. Hypotheses concerning different treatment have been investigated by...

The treatment of multicultural issues in contemporary forensic psychology textbooks.
April 1, 2003... This article examines whether practice issues relating to clients from different cultural or ethnic groups are adequately addressed in a wide selection of contemporary forensic psychology textbooks. Specifically, we examine the extent to which...

Humpty Dumpty lives.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2003... Recent New Zealand Court decisions have potentially increased the gap between legal and medical concepts of "mental disorder". Prior to this, Humpty had been given permission to use words as he thought fit. ********** The decisions of...

Decisions and Dilemmas: Working with Mental Health Law.(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... Decisions and Dilemmas: Working with Mental Health Law By Jill Peay Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2003, 217 pp. UK 21.95 [pounds sterling] Peay's important new book, Decisions and Dilemmas, is an analysis of decision-making in relation to...