Patient's Rights vs. Treatment

Individuals have the inherent right to refuse mental health services and to continue living in an impaired, dysfunctional manner – but individuals do not have the right to create impairment and dysfunction in the weak and vulnerable, those unable to protect themselves. Click here for more information about ACT, AOT, and mandated outpatient treatment for the severely mentally ill. The severely mentally ill are often not able to recognize the severity of their own symptoms, placing their safety and the safety of others at risk. Our current mental health and legal system cannot act in these individuals lives until someone has been hurt or or some crime has been committed. The revolving door of inadequate and inconsistent care in the state of California costs taxpayers, health care, and social services millions of dollars. Preventative care in the form of mandated outpatient treatment for specific individuals is one way to alleviate costs, resources, and protect mentally ill individuals and the community. Since the days of Dorothea Dix, mental health systems have struggled to balance compassionate care/patient's rights with treatment. One thing we can learn from Dorothea Dix is that social reform is needed to temper patient's rights with treatment that the most severely mentally ill deserve.