Appealing Against Commitment to Mental Hospitals in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States: An International Review
CYRIL GREENLAND M.SC.1
1 Research associate, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, and associate, department of psychiatry, faculty of medicine, University of Toronto, 250 College St., Toronto 2B, Ontario, Canada
Recent mental health legislation has attempted to reduce the stigma of mental illness by promoting the treatment of mentally ill patients, so far as possible, on the same basis as other sick people. Involuntary patients are protected against unwarranted detention by new appeal procedures. This author reports on appeal procedures in England, Wales, Scotland, Ontario, and New York Statehow they work in practice and how well they succeed in protecting patients against needless confinement.