Mental Health, Legal Capacity, and Human Rights

Provides practical solutions for ending coercion in mental health care and realizing the universal right to legal capacity.

Michael Ashley Stein (Edited by), Faraaz Mahomed (Edited by), Vikram Patel (Edited by), Charlene Sunkel (Edited by)

9781108838856, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 September 2021

300 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 3 cm, 0.81 kg

'… the most useful book that has been published in recent times … offers a 'comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of legal capacity in the realm of mental health.' … readers from all backgrounds with an interest in these critically important issues will find themselves informed, stimulated and challenged in equal ways. Especially in the circumstances of the pandemic … the editors are to be congratulated on bringing together, and home, such an important work.' Alex Ruck Keene, Mental Capacity Law and Policy

Since adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the interpretive General Comment 1, the topic of legal capacity in mental health settings has generated considerable debate in disciplines ranging from law and psychiatry to public health and public policy. With over 180 countries having ratified the Convention, the shifts required in law and clinical practice need to be informed by interdisciplinary and contextually relevant research as well as the views of stakeholders. With an equal emphasis on the Global North and Global South, this volume offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of legal capacity in the realm of mental health. Integrating rigorous academic research with perspectives from people with psychosocial disabilities and their caregivers, the authors provide a holistic overview of pertinent issues and suggest avenues for reform.

Introduction: A 'paradigm shift' in mental health care Faraaz Mahomed, Michael Ashley Stein, Vikram Patel and Charlene Sunkel
1. The alchemy of agency: reflections on supported decision-making, the right to health and health systems as democratic institutions Alicia Ely Yamin
2. Redefining international mental health care in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic Benjamin A. Barsky, Julie Hannah and Dainius P?ras
3. Reparation for psychiatric violence: a call to justice Tina Minkowitz
4. Divergent human rights approaches to capacity and consent Gerald L. Neuman
5. From fairy tale to reality: a practical legal approach towards the global abolition of psychiatric coercion Laura Davidson
6. The “fusion law” proposals and the CRPD John Dawson and George Szmukler
7. Contextualising legal capacity and supported decision making in the Global South – Experiences of homeless women with mental health issues from Chennai, India Mrinalini Ravi, Barbara Regeer, Archana Padmakar, Vandana Gopikumar and Joske Bunders
8. The potential of the legal capacity law reform in Peru to transform mental health provision Alberto Vásquez Encalada
9. Advancing disability equality through supported decision making: the CRPD and the Canadian constitution Faisal Bhabha
10. Decisional autonomy and India's Mental Healthcare Act, 2017: a comment on emerging jurisprudence Soumitra Pathare and Arjun Kapoor
11. Towards resolving damaging uncertainties: progress in the United Kingdom and elsewhere Adrian D. Ward
12. “The revolution will not be televised”: recent developments in mental health law reform in Zambia and Ghana Heléne Combrinck and Enoch Chilemba
13. Supported decision-making and legal capacity in Kenya Elizabeth Kamundia and Ilze Grobbelaar-du Plessis
14. Seher's “circle of care” model in advancing supported decision making in India Bhargavi V. Davar, Kavita Pillai and Kimberly LaCroix
15. The Swedish personal ombudsman: support in decision-making and accessing human rights Ulrika Järkestig Berggren
16. Strategies to achieve a rights based approach through WHO Quality Rights Michelle Funk, Natalie Drew Bold, Joana Ansong, Daniel Chisholm, Melita Murko, Joyce Nato, Sally-ann Ohene, Jasmine Vergara and Edwina Zoghbi
17. The Clubhouse Model: A framework for naturally occurring supported decision making Joel D. Corcoran, Cindy Hamersma and Steven Manning
18. Mind the gap: researching “alternatives to coercion” in mental health care Piers Gooding
19. Psychiatric advance directives and supported decision-making: preliminary developments and pilot studies in California Christopher Schnieders, Elyn R. Saks, Jonathan Martinis and Peter Blanck
20. Community-based mental health care delivery with partners in health: a framework for putting the CRPD into practice Stephanie L. Smith
21. Lived experience perspectives from Australia, Canada, Kenya, Cameroon and South Africa – conceptualizing the realities Charlene Sunkel, Andrew Turtle, Sylvio A Gravel, Iregi Mwenja and Marie Angele Abanga
22. In the pursuit of justice: advocacy by and for hyper-marginalized people with psychosocial disabilities through the law and beyond Lydia X. Z. Brown and Shain M. Neumeier
23. The Danish experience of transforming decision-making models Dorrit Cato Christensen
24. The use of patient advocates in supporting people with psychosocial disabilities Aikaterini Nomidou
25. Users' involvement in decision-making: lessons from primary research in India and Japan Kanna Sugiura
26. Involvement of people with lived experience of mental health conditions in decision-making to improve care in rural Ethiopia Sally Souraya, Sisay Abyaneh, Charlotte Hanlon and Laura Asher.

Subject Areas: Mental health services [MBPK], Mental health law [LNTM1], Medical & healthcare law [LNTM], Legal system: general [LNA], International organisations & institutions [LBBU], International human rights law [LBBR], Human rights [JPVH]