Critical Perspectives on Coercive Interventions: Law, Medicine and Society

Description

Coercive medico-legal interventions are often employed to prevent people deemed to be unable to make competent decisions about their health, such as minors, people with mental illness, disability or problematic alcohol or other drug use, from harming themselves or others. These interventions can entail major curtailments of individuals’ liberty and bodily integrity, and may cause significant harm and distress. The use of coercive medico-legal interventions can also serve competing social interests that raise profound ethical, legal and clinical questions. Examining the ethical, social and legal issues involved in coerced care, this book brings together the views and insights of leading researchers from a range of disciplines, including criminology, law, ethics, psychology and public health, as well as legal and medical practitioners, social-service ‘consumers’ and government officials. Topics addressed in this volume include: compulsory treatment and involuntary detention orders in civil mental health and disability law; mandatory alcohol and drug treatment programs and drug courts; community treatment orders; the use of welfare cards with Indigenous populations; mandated treatment of seriously ill minors; as well as adult guardianship and substituted decision-making regimes. These contributions attempt to shed light on why we use coercive interventions, whether we should, whether they are effective in achieving the benefits that are offered to justify their use, and the impact that they have on some of society’s most vulnerable citizens in the names of ‘justice’ and ‘treatment’. This book is essential reading for clinicians, researchers and legal practitioners involved in the study and application of coerced care, as well as students and scholars in the fields of law, medicine, ethics and criminology. The collection asks important questions about the increasing use of coercive care that demand to be answered, and offers critical insights, guidance and recommendations for those working in the field. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of boxes List of contributors Coercive interventions in law and medicine: Setting the scene Critique and complexity Walking through the collection References PART I: Examining foundations for coercive interventions in lawand medicine 1. From coerced to compulsory treatment of addiction in the patient’s best interests: Is it supported by the evidence? A taxonomy of coerced addiction treatment The ethics of legally coerced treatment Two models of addiction When would coerced treatment of addiction be ethical? What might an ethical legally coerced treatment program look like? Compulsory treatment of addiction Conclusion Notes References 2. Community treatment orders: The evidence and the ethical implications Background and the international context Are community treatment orders compatible with human rights? Do community treatment orders work? Evaluating the wider impact of community treatment orders Alternatives to community treatment orders Conclusion References Legislation 3. The ambivalence of addiction medicine to the concept of involuntary treatment is costing patients dearly Acceptable’ involuntary or mandated treatments Involuntary treatment in the mental health specialty Addiction medicine case presentations Organ damage in drug-using individuals is important to the debate over mandated treatment Special issues in relation to addiction medicine patients What involuntary or mandated treatment programs exist for those with a dependency? Making a constructive case for a better way forward: a proposal based on the evidence and the lack of it Conclusion References PART II: Lives, bodies and voices - The material impacts and livedeffects of coercion 4. The variable treatment of (in)capacity in the practical operation of Victoria’s key substituted decision-making regimes: View from the frontline The Guardianship and Administration Act The Mental Health Act Conclusion Notes References 5. Capacity does not reside in me Background The intrinsic value of bodily integrity and autonomy Ethical peril under the Mental Health Act Conclusion References 6. The impossibilities of ‘bearing witness’ to the violence of coercive interventions in the disability sector Compulsory able-bodiedness Law’s violent exceptions The unanswered calls for a royal commission The ‘differend’ of coercive interventions as institutional violence Conclusion Notes References PART III: Regulating the production of ‘good’, ‘healthy’ and‘meaningful’ lives 7. Making the abject: Problem-solving courts, addiction, mental illness and impairment The emergence of ‘problem’ populations and therapeutic ‘solutions’ Bacchi, policy problematisation, and the law The Victorian Drug Court The Assessment and Referral Court List Conclusion Notes References 8. The Healthy Welfare Card: Indigenous empowerment or ‘remote control’? A historical sketch: White Australia’s attempts to control indigenous access to cash Regulating the Indigenous economy: the Northern Territory’s income management regime The ideological origins of the Healthy Welfare Card: who are its true targets? The Healthy Welfare Card: practical concerns Passive resistance, non-compliance and bureaucratic decline Conclusion programs driven by community need? References 9. Sterilisation, disability and well-being: The curative imaginary of the ‘welfare jurisdiction’ Marion’s Case P v P The instability of judicial authority Conclusion Acknowledgements Notes References 10. Mandated treatment for seriously ill minors The orthodox legal position The Oshin Kiszko litigation Issues in respect of mandated treatment for minors References PART IV: Paternalistic logics and their alternatives: interventions in‘vulnerability’ and ‘risk’ 11. Mandated treatment as punishment: Exploring the second Verdins principle The current approach to the second Verdins principle Two notions of capacity implicit in the courts’ approach Mandated treatment as punishment: the current approach Upholding offenders’ autonomy in sentencing A revised approach to the second Verdins principle Conclusion Notes References 12. Containment versus rehabilitation: Managing high-risk offenders with complex needs Containment options Current mandated treatment options Coordinated responses Conclusion References 13. Therapeutic jurisprudence and procedural justice in mental health practice: Responding to ‘vulnerability’ without coercion The critique of coercion Therapeutic jurisprudence Procedural justice Application of procedural justice Conclusion References 14. Adult guardianship and its alternatives in Australia Guardianship Critiques of substitute decision-making Alternatives to guardianship Conclusion References Index