SUMMARY

Article Review

Article Review

1. Review of Herr, et al, Legal Rights and Mental Health Care (1985), 63 The Canadian Bar Review, pp. 258-263

Critique

Adolescents have certain rights regarding mental health care. There is a need for healthcare professionals, including nurses, to become more aware and knowledgeable of these rights. This article reviews the medical/legal rights of adolescents and their parents, and presents a history of relevant changes that have occurred in the parent-child relationship. It discusses also current issues pertinent to the mental health care of adolescents and identifies researchable questions.

Strength and Weakness

Recent amendments to the 1983 Mental Health Act in the UK (Mental Health Act 2007) include the controversial provision for: “supervised treatment in the community for suitable patients following an initial period of detention and treatment in hospital”. This provision is widespread, and more formal, in other English-speaking jurisdictions. Reviews of the international literature, human rights considerations and the perspective of psychological approaches to mental health care suggest that proposed 'supervised community treatment orders' are valuable, lawful, and compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights if certain specific conditions are met. Provisions for 'supervised community treatment orders' in the UK should be supported, but with the provisos that: the powers of the Mental Health Act are limited as in Scotland, to persons whose “ability to make decisions about the provision of [care] is significantly impaired”, that each order is time-limited and subject to review by a properly constituted Tribunal, and that the use of such orders should represent a benefit to people in terms of more appropriate treatment, or be a least restrictive alternative, or better preserve the person's private and family life.

2.Review of Law Reform Commission of Canada: Behaviour Alteration and the Criminal Law, Working Paper No. 43 (1986), 28 Criminal Law Quarterly, 410-416.

Critique

The Law Reform Commission of Canada (1971-1993, 1997 - 2006) began operation as a permanent independent body to study and undertake a systematic review of Canadian LAW. The LRCC recommended improvement, modernization and reform of some federal laws and deletion of others, as well as providing a basis for philosophical inquiry into legal issues.

The Law Reform Commission of Canada, in its Working Paper 43 (1985), undertakes to make recommendations for changes in the criminal law that are directed toward protecting people from improper use of behaviour control and modification techniques. In deriving their recommendations, the authors confront, with variable results, a number of contentious issues that are not easily resolved. The fruits of their efforts are a mixed bag; they are clearly more at home with the law than they are with behavioural alteration techniques generally and mental hospital and correctional practice specifically. In this article, the authors review the contents of the Working Paper, covering such issues as the use of psychotropic drugs in treatment, social dangerousness, informed consent, nonconsenual treatment, and competence-incompetence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)

Strength and Weakness

The LRCC was intended to act as a stable body that would keep federal laws up to date and analyze key public ...