The current system of guardianship is to be abolished under the Revised Mental Health and Welfare Act. Aging patients and changing family structures highlight the need for public services based on parens patriae. The proposed new system of involuntary hospitalization continues to require family member consent, as in civil contracts, and legal authority remains ambiguous, with the government neglecting its responsibility to guarantee inpatient treatment and community services. Many long-term patients are scheduled to be cared for in hospitals more cheaply than is currently the case, and community services are assumed to be funded through those savings, but such services are nothing more than accessories with extra beds. In the long term, it is necessary to consider comprehensive legislation on compulsory treatment and restrictions to freedom related to both physical and mental disorders in the context of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
<Author's abstract>
A Criticial View of Involuntary Hospitalization and Patient Protection after Abolishment of the System of Guardianship under the 2011 Revision to the Act on Mental Health and Welfare for the Mentally Disabled
Department of Psychiatry, Toyooka Hospital
Psychiatria et Neurologia Japonica
116: 309-315, 2014
<Keywords:involuntary hospitalization, guardianship, Act on Mental Health and Welfare for the Mentally Disabled, community psychiatric services, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities>