The Ethics of Mandated Treatment
Scenario 1
In this scenario, the psychiatrist is guided by deontological ethics in advising the patient to continue with treatment. The belief by the psychiatrist that the client requires continuous treatment after being discharged from the hospital shows how the strongly he seeks to ensure the patient adheres to morality and societal rule of law (Peters, 2015). This implies that once patients with dangerous behavior require close monitoring and continuous medication as required by law. ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
Clients suffering from dangerous behavior require continuous treatment with or without being coerced. The law provides for strict adherence to psychiatrists medical instructions in attempts to end dangerous behavior (Foxx, 2003). Psychiatrists affirm that treatment termination by patients destabilizes the already issued medication and that until they certify its termination, clients must continue to take the treatment.
Evaluating the effectiveness of dangerous behavior treatment is faced with various challenges some of which include:
Clients’ decision to terminate treatment: Clients decision to end treatment without psychiatrists’ advice disables psychiatrists’ ability to evaluate the effectiveness of this situation’s treatment.
The uncertainty of patients’ future behavior: While the medication is mandatory, mental experts have been unable to predict clients’ future behavior even after considering their situation as stable after treatment when discharging them to the community…Read More
Scenario 2
In scenario 2, it comes to the therapist’s realization that his client with bipolar disorder had stopped taking medication as prescribed. Utilitarianism ethical theory is applied by the client’s therapist in advising the client to take medication as prescribed (Peters, 2015). The therapist sought to improve the clients’ mental power by minimizing pain. This implies that therapists have the right to legally coerce bipolar patients into medical treatment.
The treatment and therapy for managing bipolar disorder are effective for mood stabilization. Seeking psychiatric assessment gives a successful path to recovery on a patient. Psychiatrists postulate that the depressive episodes attributed to bipolar are devastating and derail life productivity (American Psychiatric Association, 2002). Therefore, whether coerced or not; bipolar treatment is mandatory.
What would be the challenges in evaluating the effectiveness of mandated treatment?
Evaluating the effectiveness of bipolar treatment is faced with various challenges namely:
Side-effects complications: Prolonged bipolar disorder treatment has side-effects on the patients. In the scenario, the client indicates that she saw no need for therapy and wanted to stop treatment due to the fear of the medications side effects (American Psychiatric Association, 2002).
Loss of perspective and critical thinking by patients: In this scenario, the patient lost perspective of bipolar treatment and stopped taking the prescribed medication…..Read More