Ouliaris Calina, Sheahan Linda, George Duncan
Psychiatry Registrar, Northern Sydney Local Health District, NSW, Australia.
Clinical Ethics Consultant, South East Sydney Local Health District, Australia.
Australas Psychiatry. 2020 Oct;28(5):500-503. doi: 10.1177/1039856220928865. Epub 2020 Jun 2.
The COVID-19 national emergency activates legislative powers that allow a proportional infringement upon individual liberties. We canvas the complex legal landscape governing mental health consumers in this climate, highlight ethical considerations in application of the law and offer a simple algorithm to navigate this space.
In times of emergency, it is crucial that we uphold the safeguards embodied within mental health legislation to prevent prejudicial treatment of mental health consumers.
新冠疫情国家紧急状态激活了立法权,允许在一定程度上侵犯个人自由。我们探究了在这种情况下管理心理健康消费者的复杂法律环境,强调了法律适用中的伦理考量,并提供了一个在此领域进行操作的简单算法。
在紧急情况下,至关重要的是我们要维护心理健康立法中所体现的保障措施,以防止对心理健康消费者的歧视性对待。