Recent Case Developments in Health Law

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 380-388
Author(s):  
Brett Hartman

In January 2009, the California Court of Appeal for the Fifth District held that an individual suffering from paranoid schizophrenia could be forcefed and medicated despite his refusal of consent. The patient was a prison inmate, who engaged in a hunger strike to protest imagined abuses by prison guards. The court, reconciling conflicting provisions of California law, upheld the appointment of a conservator to make treatment decisions because the patient could not participate in those decisions “by means of a rational thought process.” However, in tying mental capacity to the plausibility of a protestor’s claims, the court risks placing political dissent at the mercy of judicial discretion.

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 320-321
Author(s):  
Richard Griffith

Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, considers two recent cases in the Court of Protection that determined if the COVID-19 vaccine was in the best interests of a person who lacked the mental capacity to decide on immunisation after relatives objected its administration


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-197
Author(s):  
Richard Griffith

Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, discusses recent cases from the Court of Protection that have focused on a person's mental capacity to engage safely with social media


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (21) ◽  
pp. 1258-1259
Author(s):  
Richard Griffith

Richard Griffith, Senior Lecturer in Health Law at Swansea University, discusses the implications of a Court of Appeal decision that considers the scope of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, section 39, in relation to care workers


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 42-48
Author(s):  
E. Yu. Boyko

The article is devoted to the directions of improvement of appeal proceedings in the civil process, identified in the analysis of legislation and practice of its application, in connection with the reform of the judicial system. The author not only considers the questions of implementation of the court of appeal of its powers, justifies the need for disclosure of criteria allowing the direction of the court of appeal the case for a new trial in the court of first instance, the limits of choice in the exercise of judicial discretion outside of the petition of appeal, the improvement of term of making a petition of appeal, eliminate of the term “appeal determination”, enshrined in the law of procedure of familiarization with the act court of appeal and its further complaints, but also indicates ways of solving them.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (suppl 5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos António Laranjeira ◽  
Ana Isabel Fernandes Querido ◽  
Zaida Borges Charepe ◽  
Maria dos Anjos Coelho Rodrigues Dixe

ABSTRACT Objective: To identify the available evidence in the scientific literature about the strategies or interventions used to promote hope in people with chronic diseases. Method: An integrative literature review of literature published between 2009-2019, which was conducted in online browsers/databases: b-On, EBSCO, PubMed, Medline, ISI, SciELO, PsycINFO, Google Scholar. Forty-one studies were found, of which eight met the inclusion criteria. Results: Most studies used a quantitative approach. There was a predominance of studies from Asia and America, addressing patients with multiple sclerosis, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and cancer. Hope-based interventions were categorized by the hope attributes: experiential process, spiritual/transcendence process, rational thought process, and relational process. Conclusion: Hope-based interventions, in its essence, are good clinical practices in the physical, psychological, social and spiritual domains. This is congruent with the vision of nursing, first proposed by Florence Nightingale. There seem to be gaps in the literature regarding specific hope promoting interventions.


Author(s):  
Kay Wilson

The debate about whether mental health law should be abolished or reformed emerged during the negotiations of the Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’) and has raged fiercely for over a decade. It has resulted in an impasse between abolitionists, States Parties, and other reformers and a literature which has devolved into ‘camps’. Mental Health Law: Abolish or Reform? aims to cut through the confusion using the tools of human rights treaty interpretation backed by a deep jurisprudential analysis of core CRPD concepts—dignity (including autonomy), equality, and participation—to gain a clearer understanding of the meaning of the CRPD and what it requires States Parties to do. In doing so, it sets out the development of both mental health law and the abolitionist movement including its goals and how and why it has emerged now. By digging deeper into the conceptual basis of the CRPD and developing the ‘interpretive compass’, the book aims to flesh out a broader vision of disability rights and move the debate forward by evaluating the three main current abolition and reform options: Abolition with Support, Mental Capacity with Support, and Support Except Where There is Harm. Drawing on jurisprudential and multi-disciplinary research from philosophy, medicine, sociology, disability studies, and history, it argues that mental health law should not be abolished, but should instead be significantly reformed to minimize coercion and maximize the support and choices given to persons with mental impairments to realize of all of their CRPD rights.


2021 ◽  
pp. 167-202
Author(s):  
Kay Wilson

Having rejected the abolition of mental health law in Chapters 4 to 7, Chapter 8 explores the possibility of the reform of mental health law. It explains the Mental Capacity with Support and Support Except Where There is Harm models. It applies the interpretive compass of inherent dignity (including autonomy), equality, and participation to both models and compares them to the Abolition with Support model. It argues in favour of the Mental Capacity with Support model as being compatible with the CRPD (despite the contrary arguments from abolitionists) and more transparent than Abolition with Support. It proposes improvements to the Mental Capacity with Support model. It discusses wider reforms to the mental health system, social reforms, and how reform is possible without abolishing mental health law first.


Author(s):  
Anthony Holland ◽  
Elizabeth Fistein ◽  
Cathy Walsh

Mental health is everyone’s concern, an idea epitomized by the campaign tag line of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, ‘No Health Without Mental Health’. This chapter will demonstrate how an understanding of a patient’s mental health within his/her social and family context is central to clinical practice. We will consider the legal basis for the treatment of mental ill-health and how it can complicate the treatment of physical illness and lead to ethical and legal concerns. The general legal principles that govern health interventions are explored, and two specific statutes for England and Wales—the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended 2007)—are both considered in some detail. It will be shown how a sound appreciation of the clinical issues, an understanding of the law, and an ability to apply that law in clinical settings are essential when faced with situations involving mental ill-health.


Author(s):  
Maura McCallion ◽  
Ursula O'Hare

<p>When the Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability completed its work in the autumn of 2007, it drew to a close an extensive consultation and analysis of mental health and learning disability services and the law in Northern Ireland. Its last report on A Comprehensive Legislative Framework made<br />a compelling case for a major overhaul of the law that the Review team itself described as ‘quite radical’. The Review identified the case for reform in the need to ensure that mental health law conforms to the requirements of human rights law, reflects changes to professional practice, reflects the needs of service<br />users and their carers, and keeps pace with reform elsewhere in the UK. Alone of all the jurisdictions in the UK, Northern Ireland has been operating largely in a legislative vacuum in relation to mental capacity law. The Review’s proposals for reform therefore extended to reform of mental health law and the introduction of mental capacity law.</p><p>In the autumn of 2008 the NI Executive published its response to the Bamford Review indicating that it intended to develop the law sequentially: reform of the Mental Health (NI) Order 1986 by 2011 followed by the introduction of mental capacity law in 2014. Responses to the Executive’s consultation resulted in<br />the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) revising its approach and it signalled its intention to bring forward mental capacity and mental health legislation together. This reated a unique opportunity in Northern Ireland for fusion of incapacity and mental health legislation. A further consultation paper was issued in January 2009, setting out the key approaches to the content<br />of two bills. However as a result of the consultation, the Health Minister Michael McGimpsey announced in September 2009 that there would be a single bill with an overall principle of autonomy. His press statement noted: “ A strong body of opinion, particularly from professional groups and lead voluntary organisations, which considered that separate mental health legislation continues to be stigmatising and recommended that mental capacity and mental health provisions should instead be encompassed into a single piece of legislation”</p><p>This short paper provides an overview of the current direction of travel on law reform in Northern Ireland. It comments on the policy climate and arguments for a fusion of mental capacity and mental health legislation. It also highlights some of the key policy issues that will need to be further explored as the Department develops its law reform proposals and concludes with some hopes and fears for the new legislation.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susmita Halder ◽  
Akash Kumar Mahato ◽  
Masroor Jahan

Schizophrenia is a major psychiatric disorder characterized by a disruption in affective, cognitive and social domains, which results in compromised ability to adapt to a changing environment and to function adequately in the community. Schizophrenia is often accompanied by gross and progressive impairment in different functional areas of a person. They are mostly seen in the form of – cognitive impairment (executive functions, information processing, attention, learning and memory), psychomotor activity, speech, thought process, perception, and abstraction. These deficits are evident in nearly all individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, and their impact on the employment, social relationships and living status of patients is devastating. However, there could be differences among cognitive profiles of different schizophrenia subtypes. Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) is a widely used standardized neuropsychological tool for cognitive assessment. In the present study, 30 male paranoid schizophrenia patients were assessed on the LNNB- Form I to see the profile of cognitive functioning on this tool.


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