Analyzing an Ethical Decision Practicum Journal Entry

Analyzing an Ethical Decision Practicum Journal Entry Essay Assignment Paper

Ethical Issue in the Article

Ethics involving involuntary treatment for people with mental illness revolve about protecting patients and other people and the ethical and legal aspects of balancing the autonomy and rights of the patient with the public rights (Sadock et al, 2014). Sometimes psychiatric patients do not consider themselves to be ill while other times they refuse to undergo treatment and therefore they may end up being forced to undergo treatment against their will (Zhang et al, 2015). Moreover, majority of voluntary psychiatric patients are coerced into accepting treatment maybe by the family, employer, friends or medical personnel. Accordingly, the involuntary treatment of psychiatric people brings in ethical issues in regard to autonomy and informed consent (Zhang et al, 2015). This is because involuntary treatment may be viewed to be violating the autonomy of the patient as well as the principle of informed consent.

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Moral and Ethical Dilemmas Surrounding the Issue

The moral and ethical dilemma surrounding the issue of voluntary vs. involuntary treatment occurs when the healthcare provider is forced to honor the autonomy of the patient and seek informed consent, and at the same time ensure that the patient gets the suitable treatment (Opsal et al, 2016). Mental illness can impair the patient’s judgment and their decision-making ability and hence such patients may not be able to make decisions regarding their treatment. Analyzing an Ethical Decision Practicum Journal Entry Essay Assignment. Accordingly, the healthcare provider has to make a decision between respecting the autonomy of the patient and being beneficent by providing treatment to be patient (Hustoft et al, 2018). The line separating the respect for the patient autonomy and beneficent care brings in moral and ethical dilemmas especially when handling individuals with severe mental illness. A healthcare provider should be able to justify and be heedful of any removal of the patient’s right and learn the responsibility of stripping a patient their freedom in order to provide the appropriate care (Hustoft et al, 2018).

Comparison to State Health Laws and Regulations in Missouri

Missouri has civil commitment laws that set out the procedure to determine when involuntary treatment is suitable for people with severe mental illness. Laws of Missouri permit the use of court-ordered treatment which is referred to as assisted outpatient treatment (AOT). For a person to be provided with the court-ordered treatment, the person must demonstrate probability of serious harm to self and other people, and show significant risk of physical harm that may result due to the inability of the individual to make treatment decisions because of the mental impairment (Lebenbaum et al, 2018) Analyzing an Ethical Decision Practicum Journal Entry Essay Assignment. Missouri laws also list the designated facilities acknowledged by the Department of Mental Health to offer involuntary detention services. Similarly, the principle of beneficence supports treatment for the best interests of the patient and if the patient is perceived to pose danger to self or other people, and is unwilling to get treatment (Lebenbaum et al, 2018). Analyzing an Ethical Decision Practicum Journal Entry Essay Assignment.

Process of Ethical Decision Making

The first step would be to recognize the ethical dilemma and gather the relevant factors about the dilemma. The second step would be to examine for the right-versus-wrong issues and test for right-versus-right paradigms. Finally, the organization policies regarding ethics and Missouri laws about involuntary treatment would be analyzed in order to make the appropriate ethical decisions (Brayley et al, 2015). Analyzing an Ethical Decision Practicum Journal Entry Essay Assignment.