2023-06-22 04:00:00
Mahmoud Hussein wrote Thursday, June 22, 2023 05:00 AM
The Mental Patient Care Law regulates the controls and conditions for compulsorily entering any person for treatment in a mental health facility. These conditions, according to the draft law, are as follows:
1- No person may be compulsorily admitted to treatment in a mental health facility without the approval of a psychiatrist, when there are clear signs indicating the presence of a severe mental illness whose treatment requires admission to a mental health facility, in the following two cases:
The possibility of a severe and imminent deterioration of the mental illness.
If the symptoms of mental illness represent a serious and imminent threat to the safety, health or life of the patient or the safety, health and life of others.
2- In these two cases, the patient must refuse to enter the facility to receive the necessary treatment, provided that his eligibility, the director of the facility and the National Council for Mental Health or the Regional Council for Mental Health are informed of the decisions of compulsory admission of the patient within twenty-four hours of his admission, accompanied by a report that includes an assessment of his health condition.
3- It is permissible for a doctor who is not specialized in psychiatry in one of the mental health facilities provided for in this law, and in the two cases referred to, to admit a patient against his will to assess his condition for a period not exceeding forty-eight hours, based on a written request submitted to the facility by any of the following persons :
A relative of the patient up to the second degree.
A competent police officer.
Area social worker.
Competent health inspector.
The consul of the country to which the foreign patient belongs.
A psychiatric specialist who does not work in that facility and is not related to the patient or the facility manager up to the second degree.
The matter shall be presented to the Public Prosecution within a period not exceeding twenty-four hours to take the necessary action.
4- The responsible psychiatrist may cancel compulsory admission before the end of the aforementioned period if there are no justifications for it, provided that he informs the director of the facility and the regional council for mental health of this, while informing the patient and his eligibility of this decision.
5- It is not permissible to give a psychiatric patient any treatment for his condition, whether this treatment is pharmacological, psychological, or behavioral, and sessions to regulate brain rhythm, or any of the treatments used in psychiatry, without referring him with knowledge of that, and he must be referred knowing the nature of this treatment, its purpose, the effects that may result from it, and the alternatives treatment for him.
6- If the compulsory admission patient refuses to take the prescribed treatment, the responsible psychiatrist has the right to oblige him to receive treatment, provided that the psychiatrist fulfills the compulsory treatment procedures before proceeding with that.
7- It is permissible, when necessary, to give the patient two sessions to regulate the brain’s rhythm until the evaluation provided for in this law is carried out, in accordance with the controls specified by the executive regulations of this law.
8- The psychiatrist must review the compulsory treatment procedures every four weeks at most, and these procedures must be reviewed when the treating psychiatrist makes any fundamental change in the authorized treatment plan.
9- If the compulsory treatment continues for more than three months, another independent medical evaluation must be obtained.
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