Question

Considering involuntary treatment, discuss Kentucky requirements .

Answer 1

In 1982, Kentucky passed the Kentucky Mental Health Hospitalization Act to address the sensitive issue of involuntary hospitalization.

Involuntary hospitalization refers to the admittance of an individual to a hospital or a psychiatric care facility against his or her will.

Kentucky Requirement for involuntary treatment are discussed below :

No person shall be involuntarily hospitalized unless such person is a mentally ill person.

1. who presents a danger or threat to self, family or others as a result of the mental illness where,

Mentally ill person means a person with ,substantially impaired capacity to use self control, judgement or discretion in the conduct of the person's affairs and social relations ,associa ted with maladaptive behaviour or recognized emotional symptoms where impaired capacity,maladaptive behaviour or emotional symptoms can be related to physiological ,psychological or social factors.

Danger means actual or the threat of serious physical harm to self ,family or others.This includes any action that deprives self ,family or others of basic necessities (food,shelter,clothings)

Treatment, when used in a criminal justice context ,means targeted interventions that focus on criminal risk factors in order to reduce the likelihood of criminal behaviour.

2. who can reasonably benefit from treatment

3.for whom hospitalization is the best restrictive mode of treatment presently available.

Temporary Commitment

Initiated when a qualified medical professional ,police officer,country or common wealth Attorney ,spouse ,relative ,friend,guardian or other interested parties files a petition for involuntary hospitalization of mentally ill indvidual.

An individual subjected to temporary commitment is entitled to a hearing .The court will determine if probable cause exists to order involuntary treatment.

Immediate Detention.

Officers may immediately transport an individual believed to be mentally I'll that presents a threat to self ,family or others to a hospital or psychiatric facility.Individual must be evaluated within 18hours of detention to determine whether involuntary treatment is necessary.

Emergency Admissions.

An authorized staff physician may order the admission of any person who is present at or is presented at a hospital .For the purpose of this subsection only, a hospital may include any acute care hospital that is licensed by the Common Wealth, within 24 hrs of admission.Under this section ,the authorized staff physician ordering the admission of the individual shall certify in the record of the individual that in his opinion the individual should be voluntarily hospitalized.Any individual who has been admitted to a hospital under section(1) of this section shall be released from the hospital within 72 hours unless further detention procedure is applicable to the individual.