Improvement of legal institutions of hospitalization of mentally disabled patients / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

The institution of voluntary hospitalization should be improved by establishing the concept of prece-dent autonomy and surrogate decision-making. The institution of advance directives should also be established to pro-tect rights of autonomy for mentally disabled patients. The decision by the guardian provided by China’s Mental Health Law is one situation of surrogate decision-making rather than involuntary hospitalization. The provision of in-voluntary hospitalization, especially“damage”,“safety”, and“danger”, should be properly interpreted on the basis of balancing patient autonomy and social security. Serious mental disorders shall return to the essence of pure medical problems, and the determination of decision-making capacity should be a separate question. Unified criteria for the judgment of decision-making capacity should be established.