Mental Health A Person-centred Approach

This chapter explores the legal and ethical factors that inform mental health nursing, from multiple perspectives. The chapter proposes a legal and ethical framework that promotes human connectedness between the practitioner and people with mental health conditions and their families and whānau. The chapter includes theoretical and practical aspects of working within a legal framework and provides several narratives to bring to life what it means to experience compulsory treatment. It concludes by discussing proposed alternatives to compulsory treatment and a potential future legal framework that embraces a person’s autonomy and human rights. New Zealand – and each Australian state and territory – has its own mental health legislation. Although there are differences between them, they share the essential features of providing for treatment without consent, criteria of danger or risk to self and others, and certain procedural protections. Throughout this chapter we use the term ‘mental health legislation’ to refer to common aspects of the legislation in different jurisdictions.