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443Weighing
Public Health and Mental Health Responses to Non-Compliance…
All who are at risk of likely serious bodily harm or physical
impairment due to mental illness have an equal claim on the resources
of psychiatric hospitals. However, in some cases the risk may be more
likely or imminent, such as with an acutely suicidal person. Another
consideration is that the use of involuntary hospitalization to protect
a person from contracting or transmitting the virus could consume
psychiatric hospital resources needed for such emergencies.
In the case of known or suspected infection, people who dis-
regard public health directives may face harsher penalties such as
detention, court orders, contempt of court proceedings, or potential
imprisonment for offences under public health legislation. Would
it be appropriate to use these kinds of enforcement measures in the
case of people whose abilities to understand, to exercise appropri-
ate judgment, and/or to evaluate risk, are affected by mental illness?
During a pandemic, perhaps a broader concept of risk should be
employed to permit a mental health response rather than a public
health response where these harsher public health measures would
be applicable. It is true that mechanisms exist to divert a person
with mental illness from prosecution to treatment, such as special-
ized mental health courts. This might be an alternative means to
address the issue other than proceeding initially with involuntary
hospitalization.
The intersection of mental health and public health laws brings
tensions to the fore between protecting the health, liberty, and equal-
ity interests of people whose ability to protect themselves from infec-
tion is affected by mental illness, protecting other vulnerable people
from infection, and pursuing the public health goal of containing the
virus. Not all people will agree on how best to address these risks. A
woman with lived experience of schizophrenia recently expressed her
concern about how she might have fared during the current pandemic
while homeless and unwell.24 She indicated that, in the past, she had
been unwilling while ill to accept help, and wished that intervention
had come earlier in her case. Others may disagree.
from-covid-19>; Lisa-Marie Gervais & Marco Bélair-Cirino, “Éclosion de cas de
COVID-19 à l’Institut psychiatrique Douglas”, Le Devoir (30 April 2020), online:
<www.ledevoir.com/societe/sante/577982/eclosion-de-covid-19-a-l-institut-
psychiatrique-douglas>.
24. Bethany Yeiser, “Homeless with COVID-19: What will happen to the homeless
during this pandemic?” Psychology
Today (11 April 2020), online: <www.psychol-
ogytoday.com/ca/blog/recovery-road/202004/homeless-covid-19>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International