Human Rights and Mental Health

Ethical Communication

Human Rights and Mental Health

Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also describe as moral philosophy .It covers a lot of dilemma such as how to live a good life, individual rights and responsibilities and the language of right and wrong(BBC 2014).

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Ethics defines the elements essential to human well-being. In addition it also refers to the specific values, standard and agreements people adept for conducting their lives. In other words ethics is the study of human behaviour and it is consequences in the tight of what is possible also is define as the social condition necessary for human beings to thrive. Furthermore ethics wisdom is the product of long history and it comes from the reality producing function of the mind (ETHICAL SOCIETY 2012).

Ethics provide good tool for individual and ethical thrives are useful in practice and they need effect the way human beings behave. Sometime if two people are disagree or argument, ethics does not provide with the sort of help that they really want (BBC 2014).

Moreover (SCU 2010) tested that ethics has to do with what your feelings tells you what is right or wrong, your religious belief and the law require. Furthermore ethics refers to well-founded standard of right or wrong that helps human ought to do and especially in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness and specific virtues.

Human rights

(OHCHR 2014) state that human rights is rights for all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national, ethnic origin, colour, religion, language or any other status. Human rights based on principles like dignity, fairness, equality, respect and autonomy (EHR 2014)

Human Rights Act protects all of us rich, poor, old and young. Furthermore human rights may be used with anyone in the country citizens or foreigners a child and adult. (LIBERTY 2012).

The human rights cover many of everyday life ranging from the righto food, shelter, education, health, freedom of thought, religious and expression.

Individual who receive care they have right which will help them not to be treated inhuman. They have the right to be treated equally not to be tortured (YHR) for example for the staff to locked an individual with mental health problem in his/her bedroom without any food and drink because he refused personal care.

They have got the right not to be treated deliberate (YHR) such as for the staff to leave an individual covered with faeces and urine for long-time and not giving him pressure relief because he have mental illness. Also they have the right to be treated as individual not objects (TELEGRAPH 2010).

All patients with mental illness are individual and they are still the same despite their illness (TELEGRAPH 2010).They have the right to be treated with dignity and respect as a human being (MHDH). Dignity is good all the time to the individual whom I take care of because it helps staff to be close with individuals, however, and the individual they will be free to communicate their needs.

Patients have the rights to accept or to refuse of treatments. To refuse other treatments like electroshock treatments and insulin shock can causes side effects (MHDH 2014). The Code of practice (1983) describes good practice that all mental health professionals should follow when treating people under Mental Health Act. The patient who is treated against this must be as fully involved in planning treatenents as possible and his wish should be taken into account by the team of mental health professionals responsible for their care in the hospital(MHA 2005) and also he have the rights to involve family members and other carer.

In UK care practitioner and other professionals such as nurse they have duty to restrain an individual to protect from harming other individual, staff, visitors and him/herself. Restrain is to stop an individual or to restricting his movements and his liberty. (LTAR 2012). In other words restrain is to stopping a person during something he want to do that may harm them (BBC).

I work with individual with dementia and I see many types of restrain from staff. Also all staff are trained to MAPA, DMI, Personal Safety and Restraint

for them to manage to restrain patients. The type of restrain which I see are as follows, physical restrain and this involve two to five member of staff holding individual for personal care, transferred him from lounge to quite room and blocking his movement.

Table, chair or bed restraining this involve equipment or any furniture to stop an individual to getting out from the chair or his bed, however, this will stop an individual freedom. Medication restrain when the individual is in bad mood, putting others on risk and banging the doors. The staff will tell anyone who is qualified to administrate medication to give him his medication which keep him to be calm.

In other places they use verbal restrain this to telling an individual not to do what he want to do nor he is equipment such as hoist, stand aid , elevator and sharp objects disposal bin which is dangerous for him.

Covert administration of medicines is a complex issues and involves the administration of a medicine disguised in food or drink to a patient without their knowledge or consent (Haw and Stubbs 2010). Nurses are especially hit hard in this predicaments because they are the ones in direct contact with the patients, and they are the one who administer the medicines. It should be considered, within the appropriate legal frameworks, for patients who lack capacity and should not be undertaken without being discussed between various healthcare professionals and the family or carer of the patients (RCP 2004).

Individual are being admitted to the hospital without his will. In other words being sectioned or detained is the authority for admission to the hospital comes from the Mental Health Act not from him. When the individual is detained he forced to take his medication if it is necessary, also when detained you will be in the hospital until you are discharged. (RETHINK)

Furthermore individual sectioned if he is unwell and the Mental Health Act will never take this light. The individual has to be suffering from a mental health disorder of a nature or degree which warrants his detention in a hospital for assessment or treatment. (RETHINK) state that the Mental Health Act give the hospital power to treat the individual against their will.

As care practitioner it is part of my job role to be able to make individual happy through communication. For what I mention above about restrain it is not for the individual and for human right because staff must find what cause the individual change to his mood. They are lot of things which can make mental health patients to be aggressive, shouting and agitated such as weather, noise environment, staff and depression.

(Joseph Fletcher) states that ethics is love and you should always thinking about yourself and you should do the loving thing. It is good to use good communication not physical restrain because physical restrain causes bruises and skin tear to the patient or even death and it is against his will.

Communication make good relationship between staff and patients. At my work place I make sure an individual have his hearing aid and glasses before I communicate with him/her. This will help him to understand what I am saying and he give me his answer. I sit the same level with him and this helps eyes contact.

I take time to listen to them even he or she is in bad mood and I give them time to explain then after I explain and tell them to calm down in love ways. When I am communicating with them I communicate clear and not length and when he is calm then I take him to a quiet place without restraining nor force.

Other staff they do not even tell what they want to do but they just restrain a patient and this will cause him to be in bad mood all the time.

They was a patient who died during restraint and he was classed as a high risk patient because he was prone to aggressive towards, other patient ,staff and him. One staff was grabbed him and pulled him down on top of him, however, the staff remained on top of him waiting for the other staff to come .When he came and hold the other arm the patient was not breathing.

Communication is a basic human rights .The individual rights are particular important because it is their major way of communicating their needs and preference. If I did not communicate with them they are unable to realise or exercise their rights because they have the right to freedom of expression.

According to United Kingdom Law, patients have the right to refuse medication and it is a general legal ,ethical, and professional principle that valid consent must be obtained before any treatments or physical investigation ,or providing personal care for patients(Department of Health 2009). The principle reflect the right of patients to determine what transpires to their own bodies and is an ultimate part of good professional practice and for consent to be valid , it must be given voluntarily by appropriately knowledgeable patients who has the capacity to consent to the intervention in question (DOH 2009). Furthermore Diamond (2011) states that it is important for nurses to act within the law with respect to respect the refusal of treatment and prevent legal action being taken contrary to them. Smith and Roberts (2011) states that, it is important for healthcare professionals to understand the ethical perceptions, legal implications and professional values in order for them to accountable for their practice (NMC 2010).

The use of covert medication should be the last resort, not to be a routine measure, or and unforeseen event should the person not agree to take their medication (MCA 2005). Covert administration of medicine should only be carried out within appropriate legal and best practice frameworks for example ;Mental Health Act, MCA 2005 ,Deprivation of Liberty ,Safeguarding and Human Rights Act.

The decision to administer medication covertly must only arise through conclusive evidence of the patient’s inability to comprehend the significance of refusal and in addition it must only be considered in order to save life or to prevent deterioration of health and 0t must be in the patient’s best interest (NMC 2008).

However there are certain circumstances in which covert medication could be both legally and ethical justified, providing certain requirements have been encounters .This should be done by first initiating the patient’s lack of consent (MCA 2005), refusal of medication by people with capacity should be respected, failure to do so may amount not only to criminal battery or civil trespass, but also a breach of their human rights. Furthermore (MCA 2005) state that every adults has the capacity and right to make their decisions.

According to what (Joseph Fletcher) state that ethics it is love. In addition forcing of medication to the individual with mental health problem without their consent it is love because individual need to be treated their illness to relieve their pain not to deteriorate which lead them to die. Furthermore it is not be love to leave an individual with mental illness untreated. Moreover the individual have mental problem so his brain are not working properly no matter he have capacity or not but he need help. Because medication control their diseases so that he can do his daily activities in placid way.

(MHCC 2013) state that people in mental health care should feel confident that physical restraint should be used competently, safely and only as a last resort with minimum force for example a patient cannot leave the hospital because he do not want to stay there for treatment. In addition (MHCC 2013) state that force may be used to achieve this if it necessary and it must be reasonable and proportionate. Furthermore it is ethical to do good to keep someone to survive that is love.

References

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