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If someone is a danger to themselves or others you can detain them and force them to take medication against their will. If they're not a danger to themselves
by DanBC 8y ago
If someone is a danger to themselves or others you can detain them and force them to take medication against their will.
If they're not a danger to themselves or others you can't do either of this because they're both significant interferences with human rights. But it's important to recogise that forced hospitalisation doesn't always work, and that keeping someone banged up in hospital for two years is an expensive injustice.
So you provide assertive outreach - teams that maintain contact with people who deny their illness, and who aim to work with the patient until they're ready to engage with services.
https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/views-from-the-nhs-frontline/2017/aug/21/assertive-outreach-team-community-care-mental-illness https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/views-from-th...
- vkou 8y ago> If someone is a danger to themselves or others you can detain them and force them to take medication against their will. It's possible to be someone who is not a danger to yourself, or others, and also be someone who is impossible to live next to. See: The 'harmless' guy who is screaming at invisible aliens at 3 am in the morning. Do you let that guy into the shelter? Or do you let him carry that behavior out on the street? What about the guy who is ODing over and over again? Can he be institutionalized? Or is he not being a danger to himself? When someone downs a bottle of sleeping pills once a week, we consider them suicidal, and we can mandate treatment - but shooting up heroin until you're passed out, barely breathing under an overpass isn't considered self-harm?