Delaney T
Issue Brief Health Policy Track Serv. 1999 Jul 1:1-19.
Civil commitment is a term associated with involuntary treatment of individuals with mental illness. It can be an inpatient admission for treatment in a hospital or other health facility or it can be outpatient treatment that is court ordered. Either way the treatment is considered to be mandated or involuntary. But if a person, who suffers from mental illness, is not able to make appropriate decisions about his or her care and treatment, who will? How can society be assured that person takes the medication a physician says is needed to treat their illness? Opponents of civil commitment argue that it is a violation of a person's civil rights to order treatment. They fear that relaxing commitment standards may, again, lead to institutionalization of our mentally ill. Proponents contend that by not following recommended treatment plans these people can become a danger to themselves or others. Therefore, someone must take responsibility for them, otherwise they may violate the rights of, or fall victim to, others and are likely become incarcerated within the criminal justice system.
民事强制住院治疗是一个与对患有精神疾病的个人进行非自愿治疗相关的术语。它可以是在医院或其他医疗机构进行住院治疗，也可以是法院下令的门诊治疗。无论哪种方式，治疗都被视为是强制性的或非自愿的。但是，如果一个患有精神疾病的人无法就其护理和治疗做出适当的决定，那么谁来做呢？社会如何确保这个人服用医生所说的治疗其疾病所需的药物呢？民事强制住院治疗的反对者认为，下令进行治疗是对一个人公民权利的侵犯。他们担心放宽强制住院治疗标准可能会再次导致我们的精神病患者被收容机构化。支持者则认为，如果这些人不遵循推荐的治疗计划，他们可能会对自己或他人构成危险。因此，必须有人为他们负责，否则他们可能会侵犯他人的权利或成为他人的受害者，并且很可能会被刑事司法系统监禁。
