Beginning in the mid-1950s, the approach to addressing serious behavioral health disorders began to shift from institutionalizing those afflicted to making community based outpatient treatment available. By the 1960s treatment policy had shifted to this new model to promote integrating people with mental illnesses into their communities. By 1970 community support programs began to appear with an emphasis on a fully continuous system of care that would serve the comprehensive needs of the seriously mentally ill. However, integrating behavioral and physical health requires that the applicable jurisprudence evolve at the same pace, and this faces resistance. Despite state legislatures' policy decisions that persons with mental illness can live in our society as functioning individuals, our jurisprudence of tort and injury law is often an impediment to that goal. This publication will serve as an introduction to the complex questions posed by behavioral health and the law.Coverage includes:Change from institutionalization to community based outpatient system of careLegal duty owed by behavioral health providers to othersHindsight bias and its effect on behavioral health jurisprudenceCriteria for when someone can be subjected to involuntary psychiatric treatmentThe impact of patient's illness on the rules that govern treatment recordsIntegration of behavioral health with physical medical issuesIncludes behavioral health terminology, acronyms, abbreviations, and a list of governmental entities involved in behavioral healthState charts on civil commitment, duty to ward, and confidentiality of mental health records

This specialized and complex field of health law requires a thorough grounding in the basics, and Fundamentals of Health Law, 5th Edition, provides that grounding like no other book on the market does. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and made current to cover the basic issues of health law practice, from patient to facility issues, from permits and regulation issues to compliance and investigation issues, and includes issues raised by new laws, regulations and guidelines promulgated since the fourth edition in 2008, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This publication covers fundamental legal principles and issues to assist: * New Practitioners or experienced attorneys entering their first years of health-law practice; * Professors of health law searching for a comprehensive text for their students; and * Users of any law library looking for answers on the health law resource shelf.

Written by esteemed legal scholar Michael L. Perlin, this indispensable Advanced Introduction examines the long-standing but ever-dynamic relationship between law and mental health. The author discusses and contextualises how the law, primarily in the United States but also in other countries, treats mental health, intellectual disabilities, and mental incapacity, giving examples of how issues such as the rights of patients, the death penalty and the insanity defense permeate constitutional, civil, and criminal matters, and indeed the general practice of law.

THE CORE OF MENTAL HEALTH LAW A musty file in Arizona's Greenlee County Courthouse reveals that on January 22, 1912, shortly before Arizona became a state, a 19-year-old Mexican-American woman residing in Morenci was taken into custody and placed in the county jail by a deputy sheriff who, that same day, filed with the Greenlee County Probate Court the following commit ment petition: Have known girl about one year. Last summer-July or Aug. 19- commenced to act irrational. Has been under treatment of physicians past 4 months. They called me this A.M. and told me they were unable to treat her successfully-that she is crazy and I must arrest her. The proposed patient was apparently examined the next day by two physicians, who duly completed the required medical questionnaire. In addition to mentioning that the patient's physical health was good, that she was "cleanly" in her personal habits, that she did not use liquor, tobacco, or drugs, and that neither she nor any of her relatives had ever been mentally ill or hospitalized in the past, the doctors listed the follow ing information on those portions of the form devoted to mental illness and dangerousness: Dangerousness: No threats or attempts to commit suicide or murder. Is of a very happy temperament. Has a tendency to laugh and sing. Facts indicating insanity: She wanted to dance. Most of conversation was fairly rational.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was passed in March 2010, includes provisions to expand the scope of mental health care available to most Americans. What do psychiatrists need to know about the provisions of the health reform law to practice most effectively and best serve their patients? Health Care Reform: A Primer for Psychiatrists is a compilation of resources designed to educate psychiatrists and other mental health professionals about key elements of the reform law. At its core are three articles from a special section on health reform that appeared in the November 2010 issue of Psychiatric Services. Each article addresses a key question for the organization and financing of mental health and substance abuse care under health care reform: How should states set up their health exchanges to ensure that the needs of people with mental illness are addressed? Will coverage of mental health services be adequate under the law's provisions? Can integration of mental and physical health care -- a particular focus of health reform -- improve the quality and efficiency of care for people with mental illness? This book also provides a list of additional readings, with links to the source documents. These include "backgrounder" articles published in Psychiatric News, analyses and commentaries from the American Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Services, and white papers and other useful documents compiled by staff of the APA Department of Government Relations.