Overt dangerous behavior as a constitutional requirement for involuntary civil commitment of the mentally ill.

Mental Health - United States ex rel. Mathew v. Nelson - Civil Commitment of the Mentally Ill Based on a Finding of Dangerousness Is Constitutional, Even Though Dangerousness Is Not Inferred from a Recent, Overt Dangerous Act

Donaldson revisited: is dangerousness a constitutional requirement for civil commitment?

The Supreme Court decision O'Connor v. Donaldson (1975) has been widely interpreted to assert that dangerousness is a constitutional requirement for civil commitment. This interpretation is a misreading of the decision, which actually addressed the conditions disallowing indefinite, involuntary custodial confinement and not the requirements for an initial commitment. An excessive reliance on da...

Extended civil commitment for dangerous psychiatric patients.

Mental health clinicians are increasingly held civilly liable for the dangerous acts of their psychiatric patients. One area of liability is the negligent release of involuntarily committed patients who engage in dangerous acts after their hospital discharge. All states have provisions for extended involuntary commitment for mentally ill dangerous patients. We examined extended civil commitment...

Civil commitment viewed from three perspectives: professional, family, and police.

This study was designed to uncover differences in interpretation and implementation of civil commitment laws. Such problems in interpretation may contribute to mentally ill persons remaining untreated and potentially joining the thousands of homeless mentally ill persons in our communities or the incarcerated mentally ill persons in our prisons and jails. The study examines differences in the...

بستری و درمان اجباری: نگاهی به قوانین بهداشت روان

AbstractObjectives: Disregard of the rights of the mentally ill is a prevalent condition in the world. Whereas until the mid twentieth century most legislations were enacted to protect the society against individuals with mental disorders, in recent years the attitudes of legislators has been focused on protecting the rights of the mentally ill. The aim of this study is to review the laws relat...