Mental illness and intellectual disability (formerly called mental retardation) impact 20% of Americans, and have enormous personal, legal, and policy implications for patients, families, and society. This Nutshell introduces you to the broad range of criminal and civil issues in mental health law, including diagnosis of mental illness; expert testimony on mental health issues; civil commitment; competence to stand trial; the insanity defense; various competencies; ethical/legal issues facing mental health professionals, including informed consent, confidentiality, privilege, and malpractice; discrimination against persons with mental illness; financial and medical benefits for disabled persons.

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.

Expert coverage deals with civil commitment, as well as hearings to determine fitness for trial or execution. Examines criminal defenses and sentencing as they relate to the mental capacity of defendants. Overviews categories of mental health professionals, including the scope of their work, liscensing, and discipline. Discusses the major psychiatric disorders. Clinical psychiatric evidence is examined, including a review of admissibility of evidence, qualifying experts, and establishing a basis for clinical opinion. Medical malpractice and negligence are also examined.

Answers to 300 questions most relevant to mental-health practice in New York State.

The Court of Last Resort looks at decision making in a mental-health court and at the dilemmas of treating mental illness while protecting patients' legal rights. Carol Warren spent seven years studying hearings in a large California court where people who had been involuntarily committed to institutions for psychiatric treatment could petition for their release. In this book she confronts questions of whether mental illness is real or only a label for societal control, whether the government should be involved in committing the deviant to institutions, and how the interaction of judges, psychiatrists, families, police, and other individuals and agencies affect the court's administration of mental-health law. Though the cases in this book fall under California's Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, Warren's analysis of conflicts between legal and medical models of behavior is of national and international importance both to sociologists and to the many professionals who work at the juncture of mental health and the law.

Examining the legal structure of the mental health system, this book explains the legal principles. It places them in the context of their practical application, the realities of patient life, and the complexities of organising care. This edition gives an analysis of the Mental Capacity Act, 2005 and the Draft Mental Health Bill.

Provides practical solutions for ending coercion in mental health care and realizing the universal right to legal capacity.