Voluntary Admission

Voluntary admission of a mentally challenged person can occur when an authorized medical personnel approves that a patient should be voluntarily admitted to a psychiatric health unit.

The patient agrees to be admitted in their own will. Also, the medical officer should be satisfied that the patient would significantly benefit from the mental health facility.

This admission is usually carried out the same way as the admission to the general hospitals are undertaken.

However, the patient is not entirely free to leave the mental care unit, unlike the patients in the general hospitals. Any individual above the age of 14 can ask for a voluntary admission, or their caretaker can request on their behalf (Gilhooley et al., 2017). The period of stay may depend on different factors, including the type of treatment as well as the decision that will be made by the psychiatrist. Once in the psychiatric unit, the doctor conducts a consultation before making an assessment.

Involuntary Admission

It involves an admission of a mentally ill person to a mental health unit against their will and per the Mental Health Act.

During the process of admission, a number of steps are involved, this entails filling a Schedule 1 by the doctor who personally accessed the patient (Kala & Kala, 2015).

Upon completion the person is taken and held at the stated mental health facility against their will, this is called scheduling someone for further assessment of their psychological state.

Once in the stated mental health facility, the patient can only be further confined contrary to their will, if two doctors where one must be a psychiatrist come to an agreement that it is indispensable and by the Mental Health Act. At a time a third doctor may be involved if the two doctors' observation is not in line (Kala & Kala, 2015). If the third doctor approves that the person has a mental disorder, the patient is held in the hospital for a maximum of three working days (Kala & Kala, 2015). It is worth noting that, for an individual to be involuntary admitted in a psychiatric health unit, he or she has to pose harm to other or himself or herself.

Reference

Gilhooley, J., Umama-Agada, E., Asghar, M., McManus, S., Whitty, P., & Kelly, B. (2017).

Voluntary and involuntary psychiatric admissions: involuntary admission status. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 1-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2017.44

Kala, A., & Kala, K. (2015). Involuntary admission and treatment. Indian Journal of Social

Psychiatry, 31(2), 130. http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0971-9962.173293