Alison Hymes Research Paper

1466 Words3 Pages

The Rights of Mental Ill

Alison Hymes fought for her patient rights; she was committed against her will. Alison sat in a small waiting room of a Virginia mental hospital; the morning of her recommitment hearing. She scribbled down her thought and list of arguments in favor of releasing her from Western State Hospital in Staunton, Va. She wrote everything down into her green composition book. Her notes included: Being at the hospital too long, and becoming institutionalized. Alison knew no one was going to listen to her. Ms. Hymes had six other recommitment hearings over the previous 17 months and repeatedly said the same thing at each one. A judge ruled that she was a danger to herself and involuntarily hospitalized her twice in three years. …show more content…

They should be limited to certain rights because their brain lacks capacity to make informal decisions. If committed in a mental hospital, every patient should be treated with proper care and respect. How can the rights of human with mental health conditions be protected and promoted? People with mental health conditions are exposed to a wide range of human rights violations. The stigma the face means they are often ostracized from society and fail to receive the care they require or the services and support they need to lead full lives in the community. In some communities, people with mental health disabilities are banished to the edge of the town, where they are left half-naked or in rags, tied up, hungry or even beaten. People in mental hospitals aren’t in better living environments. They are restrained with iron shackles, confined in caged bed, deprived of clothing, half decent bedding, clean water or proper toilet facilities and are subject to neglect and abuse. It’s unfair because they’re paying for better treatment that they would receive on the outside world. People with mental health conditions also face discrimination on a daily basis including in the fields of education, housing and employment. Some countries even prohibit people from voting, having children and even marrying. Human rights violations against people with mental disorder occur in …show more content…

Mentally ill people can be hospitalized in several different ways and the status varies from state to state. The goal is the status is to protect the sane and at the same time to prevent mentally ill people from being subjected to a needlessly surprising commitment experience. To end this effect, the law set up requirements and the hospital proceeding undertakes to determine whether the person involved comes under the different requirements. What’s involuntarily and voluntary commitment? In some situations, people with a mental illness can be made to go into a psychiatric hospital or institution against their will. The process is called an involuntary commitment and every state has a law for it, although those laws are not well known. Voluntary commitment is the act of a person being admitted to a mental health facility, psychiatric hospital, or voluntarily. Unlike involuntary commitment, the person is free to leave the hospital against medical advice, though a period of notice, or the requirement that the leaving take place during daylight hours, is sometimes required. If you have been admitted into an emergency facility without authorization, your admission was ordered by a court based certificate, physician, social worker, or clinical nurse, or psychologist. In some jurisdictions, a line is drawn between formal and informal voluntary commitment, and this may have an effect

Open Document