Resolved: that involuntary treatment is never justified
Description:
A dialogue with patients presented at the American Psychiatric Association Convention held May 13, 1986. Rae's words from the debate are transcribed, in which she discusses the public policy towards involuntary psychiatric treatment for this with mental illnesses. Rae calls the psychiatrist the "most powerful nongovernmental decision maker in modern life" and that this leads to forced treatment. She says that the idea that a mental health patient may be seen as dangerous is not a medical diagnosis or legal standard to be used to force people to get treatment. Rae also brings up the fact that there are no standards for deciding when people who are mentally ill should be forced to get treatment. Aside from Rae, the debate also includes Jay Mahler, a coordinator of Mental Health Consumer Concerns in Contra Costa, California who argues with Rae that involuntary treatment is not justified; and Dr. Donna Norris, a child psychiatrist in charge of an outpatient program in Boston, and Dr. Harvey Ruben, head of the Joint Commission on Public Affairs of the American Psychiatric Association, who both argue that involuntary treatment can be justified in certain cases. People in the audience are allowed to ask questions of the speakers at the end of the debate.
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