PS280 Lecture 13: Week 13
● A lot of extra text material, focus on what is covered IN CLASS
Legal and Ethical Issues
Legal Issues
● Civil commitment
● Criminal commitment
Ethical Issues
● Ethical decision making
● Confidentiality
● Informed consent
Civil Commitment
● Criteria for civil commitment (someone held in hospital against their will - eg when
therapist called 911 because she shared her suicidal intentions)
○ Person has a mental illness - broad or narrow definition - in Ontario: disease or
disability of the mind
○ Is dangerous - to self or others
○ Deterioration and need for treatment - if we know they would deteriorate and
become danger without treatment
○ Formal vs informal - in front of judge told they meet criteria for civil commitment,
usually done informally where person is kept in hospital longer than they want to
be bc seen as risk to self or others
● Community treatment orders (CTOs)
○ To ensure treatment compliance
○ Usually schizophrenic patient release on CTO where they are required to
continue taking meds
○ Patients lack insight
○ Brian’s law - sportscaster that was killed by man with schizophrenia who stopped
taking meds,
○ Issues with CTOs
■ Public safety vs well being of mentally ill person (decided at end of the
day it is about their well being)
■ Supporting: evidence that they are effective (treatment, housing), likely
would not get out of hospital without CTO, avoiding tradegy (eg of
schizophrenic who murdered 3 people)
■ Opposing: society should not force people into treatment, typically
patients forced to take medications, suggested if we had better alternative
resources and stable housing this would be more effective
Criminal Commitment
● Accused of committing crime
● Less common than civil (but gets more attn), unlike civil, same law across Canada
● Insanity defence - not criminally responsible in Canada
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
A lot of extra text material, focus on what is covered in class. Criteria for civil commitment (someone held in hospital against their will - eg when therapist called 911 because she shared her suicidal intentions) Person has a mental illness - broad or narrow definition - in ontario: disease or disability of the mind. Deterioration and need for treatment - if we know they would deteriorate and become danger without treatment. Formal vs informal - in front of judge told they meet criteria for civil commitment, usually done informally where person is kept in hospital longer than they want to be bc seen as risk to self or others. Usually schizophrenic patient release on cto where they are required to continue taking meds. Brian"s law - sportscaster that was killed by man with schizophrenia who stopped taking meds, Public safety vs well being of mentally ill person (decided at end of the day it is about their well being)
