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Orwell lives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Tony S. Zigmond
Tony S. Zigmond*
Affiliation:
Consultant Psychiatrist and Royal College of Psychiatrists lead on mental health legislation. Email: azigmond@doctors.org.uk
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Type
Correspondence
Information
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , July 2010, pp. 316
Copyright
Copyright © iStockphoto/Devon Stephens 

Reference Branton and BrookesBranton & Brookes (2010) end their excellent article with the statement ‘This [the changes to the Mental Health Act 1983] could lead to new services, offering compulsory treatment to individuals hitherto unlikely to be held liable to detention’.

‘Offering compulsory treatment’? Compulsory treatment isn't ‘offered’. Compulsion is removing a person's right to make treatment decisions. It is the denial of personal autonomy. It is replacing an individual's view as to what is in their ‘best interest’, including the best interest of their own health (e.g. the balance between therapeutic and adverse effects of medication), with the (no doubt well-meaning) opinions of others. It is used even when people are capable of making treatment decisions for themselves.

Compulsion may be necessary but we should never forget, or use language to minimise, its impact on the individuals concerned.

References

Branton, T, Brookes, G (2010) Definitions and criteria: the 2007 amendments to the Mental Health Act 1983. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 16: 161–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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