Patients' Rights

Question 1

Civil Commitment

Answer 1

legal placement of people in psychiatric institutions against their will - usually requires a relative, or professional

individuals are judged to be mentally ill and a threat to themselves or others - can be involuntarily confined to psychiatric institutions to provide them with treatment and help ensure their own safety and that of others

Question 2

Voluntary Hospitalization

Answer 2

individual voluntarily seeks treatment in a psychiatric institution and can with adequate notice, leave the institution when he/she chooses

Question 3

Criminal Commitment

Answer 3

an individual is acquitted of a crime by reason of insanity and placed in a psychiatric institution for treatment

defendant’s unlawful act judged by court of law to result from mental disorder/defect

Question 4

Thomas Szasz

Answer 4

argued label of mental illness is a societal invention that transforms social deviance into medical illness

people should not be deprived of their liberty b/c behavior perceived to be socially deviant

Question 5

Predicting Dangerousness

Answer 5

tend to overpredict dangerousness

APA - psychologists, psychiatrists, can reliably predict violent behaviors

past violent behavior often predicts future violence, but clinician doesn’t always have history of client

Post hoc problem - hindsight 20/20

Often wrong in predicting a patients likely hood of violence when leaving a hospital- behavior based on that in hospital not of past behavior

Question 6

Leaping from General to Specific

Answer 6

Generalized perceptions of violent tendencies may not predict specific acts of violence

people with general tendencies toward violence don’t always act on them

similarly a diagnosis of aggressive/dangerous behavior (ie antisocial behavior) is not sufficient basis for predicting specific violent acts

Question 7

Defining Dangerousness

Answer 7

lack of agreement over types of behavior that are violent or dangerous

determination in violent/dangerous behavior involves moral and political judgements withing social context

Question 8

Base-Rate Problems

Answer 8

False negative: predicting a violent behavior will not occur but does

False positive: predicting a violent behavior will occur but doesn’t

Violent acts (ie murder, suicide, assault) are relatively rare making prediction of when act will occur harder

Question 9

Disclosure of Direct Threats

Answer 9

client not likely to inform a therapist of a clear threat

threats most likely vague and nonspecific - therapist must infer dangerousness from hostile gestures and veiled threats

Question 10

Violence and Severe Mental Disorders

Answer 10

account for small proportion of violent crimes - 4%

Schizophrenia: risk of violence much higher (4x higher) among schizophrenics who abuse drugs/alcohol, who experience command hallucinations