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- Title
Involuntary commitment in psychiatric care: what drives the decision?
- Authors
Lorant, Vincent; Depuydt, Caroline; Gillain, Benoit; Guillet, Alain; Dubois, Vincent
- Abstract
<bold>Background: </bold>Psychiatric commitment laws have been reformed in many European countries. We assessed the relative importance of the different legal criteria in explaining involuntary commitment under the Belgian Mental Health Act of 1990.<bold>Method: </bold>Psychiatric assessments were requested for 346 patients living in Brussels who were randomly selected from a larger group and were being considered for involuntary commitment. A retrospective study of these patients' files was carried out.<bold>Results: </bold>More than half of the requests for involuntary commitment were turned down. The lack of a less restrictive alternative form of care was the criterion most crucial in decisions in favour of commitment. Alternative forms of care were more likely to be unavailable for psychotic individuals, foreigners, and patients not living in a private household.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>Involuntary commitment is mainly due to the inability of the mental health care system to provide more demanding patients with alternative forms of care.
- Subjects
BRUSSELS (Belgium); BELGIUM; MENTAL health services; PSYCHIATRY; PEOPLE with intellectual disabilities; PATHOLOGICAL psychology; MENTAL health service laws; PSYCHIATRY laws; INVOLUNTARY hospitalization -- Law &; legislation; COMPARATIVE studies; GROUP decision making; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL cooperation; PUBLIC health; RESEARCH; EVALUATION research
- Publication
Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2007, Vol 42, Issue 5, p360
- ISSN
0933-7954
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s00127-007-0175-2