Indian Child Welfare Act Proceedings. Final rule.

This final rule adds a new subpart to the Department of the Interior's (Department) regulations implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), to improve ICWA implementation. The final rule addresses requirements for State courts in ensuring implementation of ICWA in Indian child-welfare proceedings and requirements for States to maintain records under ICWA.

["Natural" death of a person under the care of a custodian]. / Der "natürliche" Tod einer Betreuten.

An ambulance service doctor was called to the death of a 76-year-old woman and attested cardiac arrest and psycho-organic brain syndrome as the cause of death on the death certificate. At the second external examination mandatory before cremation, extensive hematomas were detected on the right thorax and multiple haematomas in the face and on the forehead. The autopsy initially ordered by the public health officer revealed serial rib fractures and a fractured skull. After notifying the prosecutor, a forensic autopsy was ordered and death was found to have been caused by fat embolism following massive blunt force to the thorax with serial rib fractures and haematopneumothorax. After that, the adopted son, who had been appointed care custodian for the woman, and his wife were suspected, because they had given contradictory explanations for the injuries. At first, they were only suspected of failure to render assistance, but in the end they were both charged with murder. Only because of the second external examination prescribed by the law still in force could the errors of the improper first external examination be corrected.

The legal rights of LGBT youth in state custody: what child welfare and juvenile justice professionals need to know.

Youth in state custody, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, have federal and state constitutional and statutory rights. These rights guarantee a young person safety in their placement as well as freedom from deprivation of their liberty interest. Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth have these rights violated on a regular basis. Many cases in both the child welfare and juvenile justice contexts have resulted in extensive and time-consuming consent decrees as well as sizable damages awards. Knowledge of a youth's legal rights can help providers avoid legal liability while creating a safer and healthier environment for LGBT youth. This article provides a general overview of the successful federal legal claims that youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems have made, discussion of the rights generated as a result, particle application of these rights to the experiences of LGBT youth with hypothetical scenarios, a focus on specific rights that emanate from certain state laws, and a focus on specific concerns of transgender youth.

TRICARE; Individual Case Management Program; Program for Persons with Disabilities; extended benefits for disabled family members of active duty service members; custodial care. Final Rule.

The Department is publishing this final rule to implement requirements enacted by Congress in section 701(g) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (NDAA-02), which terminates the Individual Case Management Program. The Department withdraws its proposed rule published at 66 FR 39699 on August 1, 2001, regarding the Individual Case Management Program. This rule also implements section 701(b) of the NDAA-02 which provides additional benefits for certain eligible active duty dependents by amending the TRICARE regulations governing the Program for Persons with Disabilities. The Program for Persons with Disabilities is now called the Extended Care Health Option. Other administrative amendments are included to clarify specific policies that relate to the Extended Care Health Option, custodial care, and to update related definitions.

Professionally indicated short-term risk-taking in the treatment of borderline personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE: To define and explore the rationale for professionally indicated short-term risk-taking in treating adults with borderline personality disorder, and discuss prerequisites for the approach, clinical implementation and medicolegal contexts. CONCLUSION: When prerequisites are met and clinical and medicolegal practice is sound and thorough, taking short-term risk, as part of a comprehensive treatment, is a legitimate professional consideration in working with some adults with borderline personality disorder.

Unearthing the conflicts between carer and custodian: implications of participation in Section 16 hearings under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act (1992).

Mental health nursing occurs within a legal and ethical framework that presents conflicts between a paternalistic custodial role and an ethical commitment to autonomy. This paper considers the ethical conflict for nurses posed by acting as second health professional at judicial reviews under Section 16 of the Mental Health (Compulsory Treatment and Assessment) Act. Issues of advocacy and paternalism are discussed in light of the conflict between therapeutic and legislated roles. Strategies aimed at protecting the therapeutic relationship are outlined as a response to the current lack of guidelines in this area. Participation in legal processes of committal requires that nurses reflect carefully and critically on the ethical issues raised.

Criminal justice procedures in civil commitment.

The actions of federal district courts and state legislatures in recent years have resulted in the growing application of procedures of the criminal justice system to the civil commitment process. Increasingly patients can be confined only if they are dangerous to others, and increasingly due-process procedures of the criminal law are required, to the detriment of the patient's treatment and his survival in the community. The author says that allegations of patients' being railroaded into hospitals are, with few exceptions, fictitious. Abuses thet do exist should be handled through writs of habeas corpus and malpractice suits, remedies much more available now than in the past. The principal abuse in commitment occurs not when patients are admitted, the author believes, but at discharge, when so many patients are turned out into communities that lack proper services for them.