scholarly journals Provider-initiated HIV counselling and testing (PICT) in the mentally ill

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
M Y H Moosa ◽  
F Y Jeenah
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Hiv Testing ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Outpatient Services ◽  
Mentally Ill Persons ◽  
Psychiatric Admissions ◽  
Mental Health Settings ◽  
Hiv Counselling And Testing

<p>The prevalence of HIV infection is substantially higher in mentally ill individuals than in the general population. Despite this, HIV testing is not yet standard practice among the mentally ill population, and many mental health settings do not encourage HIV testing. This paper discusses provider-initiated HIV counselling and testing (PICT) and some of the ethical dilemmas associated with it, on the basis that PICT may be used to increase the number of mentally ill persons tested for HIV. The authors conclude that PICT should be promoted to all psychiatric admissions and mentally ill individuals receiving outpatient services, and that this is within the parameters of existing policies and legislations in South Africa.</p>

scholarly journals Integrating Mental Health Perspectives into the Legal Discourse on Reproductive Justice in India

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38
Author(s):  
Malavika Parthasarathy
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Reproductive Justice ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Mentally Ill Persons ◽  
The Right

The reproductive justice framework envisions a world where all women, including those situated at the intersection of multiple structures of oppression such as class, caste, sexual orientation, disability and mental health, are able to exercise their right to decisional and reproductive autonomy. S. 3(4)(a) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, provides that an abortion cannot be performed on a mentally ill woman without the consent of her guardian. I analyse the Indian Supreme Court’s decision in Suchita Srivastava v. Chandigarh Administration [(2009) 9 SCC 1] in light of contemporary legal developments in the field of disability law and mental health law. The first argument that I make in this paper is that the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, covers persons with mental illness, with the rights in the Act applicable to those with mental illness as well. The second argument rests on the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, which recognizes the right to privacy and dignity of mentally ill persons, including their capacity to make decisions affecting healthcare. I argue that the judgment, while path-breaking in its recognition of the reproductive rights of disabled women, is inimical to the rights of mentally ill women, perpetuating dangerous stereotypes about their ability to exercise choices, and dehumanizing them. It is imperative for the reproductive justice framework to inform legal discourse and judicial decision-making, to fully acknowledge the right to self-determination and bodily integrity of mentally ill persons.

The Case for an Independent Licensing Board for Psychology

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Nell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Professional Development ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Information Giving ◽  
Medical Gaze ◽  
Mental Health Settings

Medicine and psychology are constrained to collaborate with one another in their common human service enterprise, but are methodologically separated by psychology's loquacity, its dependence on words, and the silence of the medical gaze, its wordlessness. If psychology is co-opted by the politically more powerful medical profession, it cannot attain its full human welfare potential. Its professional development is stunted, it is subordinated to psychiatry in mental health settings, and prevented from communicating effectively with its clients by the imposition of information giving constraints appropriate to medicine but alien to psychology. In this paper the author argues that in South Africa there cannot be a liberatory psychology until there is an autonomous psychology, governed by a statutorily independent licensing board.

scholarly journals The care, treatment, rehabilitation and legal outcomes of referrals to a tertiary psychiatric hospital according to the Mental Health Care Act No. 17 of 2002

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Dumisile Priscilla Madlala ◽  
F B Sokudela
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Signs And Symptoms ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Correct Treatment ◽  
Mentally Ill Persons ◽  
Care Treatment

<p><strong>Background. </strong>The Mental Health Care Act No. 17 of 2002 (MHCA) was introduced to combat poor care received by mentally ill persons. </p><p><strong>Objective.</strong> The objective of this study was to evaluate diagnostic and treatment accuracy as well as compliance with procedural matters related to the MHCA, using a sample in the northern region of Gauteng Province, South Africa. </p><p><strong>Method.</strong> Files of 200 patients admitted to Weskoppies Hospital between June and December 2009 were evaluated for admission procedures, and care, treatment and rehabilitation (CTR). </p><p><strong>Results.</strong> From referring hospitals, 174 (87%) persons had appropriate signs and symptoms documented in the referral note or MHCA forms. All of these were appropriately diagnosed. Although about one-third of the patients’ treatment was not documented, more than 50% (<em>n</em>=163) received the correct treatment. In two-thirds of patients, correction of detected abnormalities was not documented. Approximately 50% of the admissions had documents that did not adhere to MHCA provisions. At Weskoppies Hospital, CTR was considered appropriate for 92% of the patients. The legal status of the majority of patients was involuntary at discharge point. The majority of persons stayed for &lt;3 months but for longer than what medical aid schemes allow in the private sector. </p><p><strong>Conclusions. </strong>The study highlighted both improvements and gaps in CTR given to mentally ill persons in the northern Gauteng region, which might apply to the rest of the country. Medicolegal requirements stipulated by the MHCA are still a challenge a decade post enactment, but there may be a move in the right direction.</p>

Mental Health in a Remote Community

1983 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. M. Valliant ◽  
D. Cooper ◽  
P. Simpson-Housley ◽  
B. Hall ◽  
D. Farmsworth
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Northern Ontario ◽  
Remote Community ◽  
Mentally Ill Persons

A total of 118 persons, 44 male and 74 female, from a Northern Ontario community with a local psychiatric hospital were administered a community mental health attitude scale. The groups were relatives of discharged and current psychiatric patients, citizens with no psychiatric relatives, mental health professionals, and psychiatric patients. Significant differences were noted for educational level, age, and community mental health ideology. Analysis suggests that group membership could be predicted with 67% success for patients and 87% for others. Citizens from the community leaned toward a denial of social freedom and recognition for mentally-ill persons and toward treating them as disparate from the rest of the community.

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