Unveiling the Untold: Psychiatric Ethics From a Patient's Perspective

Psychiatric ethics play a crucial role in ensuring patient welfare while balancing the ethical frameworks guiding mental health treatments. While often overshadowed by other medical specialties, psychiatry holds a unique position within the healthcare system due to the complexities involved in treating mental illnesses. This article aims to shed light on the essential aspects of psychiatric ethics from a patient's viewpoint, exploring the realm of Basic Bioethics.

The Journey Begins: Understanding Basic Bioethics in Psychiatry

Within the realm of psychiatry, the concept of Basic Bioethics encompasses several key principles that guide healthcare professionals in their interactions with patients. These principles include autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.

Autonomy: In the context of psychiatric ethics, autonomy refers to an individual's right to make decisions about their treatment or refuse treatment altogether. This principle recognizes the patient's capacity to give informed consent and promotes shared decision-making between the patient and the healthcare provider.

Mental Patient: Psychiatric Ethics from a Patient’s Perspective (Basic Bioethics)

by Ashley McKenna LPCC (Kindle Edition)

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Language	:	English
File size	:	625 KB
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Beneficence: The principle of beneficence emphasizes the importance of acting in the best interest of the patient. In psychiatric treatment, this includes providing appropriate care, considering individual needs, and supporting the patient's overall well-being.

Non-maleficence: Non-maleficence focuses on the principle of "do no harm." Psychiatrists must strive to avoid causing harm to patients, both physically and mentally. This principle also extends to minimizing potential risks associated with psychiatric interventions.

Justice: The principle of justice emphasizes fair and equal treatment for all. It encompasses considerations of access to care, distribution of resources, and addressing any disparities or inequalities within the psychiatric healthcare system.

The Patient's Perspective: Unraveling the Unspoken

When examining psychiatric ethics, it is crucial to understand and consider the unique experiences and perspectives of patients. Mental health conditions often come with stigma, fear, and misunderstanding, leading to additional challenges for individuals seeking help. The patient's perspective sheds light on various ethical dilemmas that arise within psychiatric practice.

Authentic patient narratives reveal the significance of adopting a patient-centered approach to psychiatric care. This approach considers patients as partners in decision-making, actively involving them in treatment plans, and respecting their preferences and values. Establishing a trusting and empathetic relationship allows the patient's voice to be heard and ensures their autonomy is respected.

Moreover, psychiatric ethics must address the challenges of involuntary hospitalization and legal aspects of mental health treatment. Striking a balance between patient rights and the need for urgent intervention is a delicate task that requires careful ethical considerations. Ensuring patient safety while preserving their dignity and autonomy is paramount.

From Rigid Guidelines to Real-Life Impact

While ethical principles provide a theoretical framework, psychiatry necessitates navigating complex scenarios that may not fit neatly within predefined guidelines. The grey areas of psychiatric practice often demand moral reasoning, empathy, and compassion to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients.

Psychiatrists face challenging decisions regarding medication choices, the use of restraints, and the application of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). These practices require significant ethical deliberation, considering potential benefits, risks, and the patient's capacity to provide informed consent.

The psychiatric community must also grapple with ethical issues arising from advances in technology and research. The use of artificial intelligence, genetic testing, and brain stimulation techniques present both promising opportunities and ethical dilemmas. Patient perspectives and involvement in the development and regulation of these novel approaches are crucial to ensure ethical boundaries are upheld.

Redefining the Future: Fostering Ethical Mental Health Practices

The foundation of psychiatric ethics lies not only within medical training and professional responsibilities but also in society's perception of mental health and the elimination of stigmas surrounding it. Empowering patients and raising awareness about psychiatric ethics is crucial for promoting ethical mental health practices.

Education programs for healthcare professionals should prioritize psychiatric ethics, instilling a patient-centered approach and promoting open dialogue. Transparent communication aims to bridge the gap between patients and psychiatrists, fostering trust and shared decision-making. Additionally, ethics committees and ongoing professional development can provide a platform for continuous ethical discussions and reflection.

Ultimately, psychiatric ethics should embrace patient perspectives, considering their unique experiences, challenges, and desires. By placing patients at the forefront of ethical considerations, the field of psychiatry can genuinely promote patient welfare while upholding the principles of Basic Bioethics.

In Closing: A Collective Responsibility

Psychiatric ethics from a patient's perspective within the realm of Basic Bioethics plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of mental health care. Recognizing patient autonomy, promoting beneficence and non-maleficence, ensuring justice, and incorporating patient perspectives are vital steps in fostering ethical mental health practices.

By acknowledging the complexities of psychiatric ethics and engaging in ongoing ethical discussions, we can collectively strive for better patient outcomes, minimize harm, and promote understanding and compassion within the psychiatric healthcare system.

Mental Patient: Psychiatric Ethics from a Patient’s Perspective (Basic Bioethics)

by Ashley McKenna LPCC (Kindle Edition)

4.7 out of 5

Language	:	English
File size	:	625 KB
Text-to-Speech	:	Enabled
Screen Reader	:	Supported
Print length	:	203 pages

FREE

A philosopher who has experienced psychosis argues that recovery requires regaining agency and autonomy within a therapeutic relationship based on mutual trust.

In Mental Patient, philosopher Abigail Gosselin uses her personal experiences with psychosis and the process of recovery to explore often overlooked psychiatric ethics. For many people who struggle with psychosis, she argues, psychosis impairs agency and autonomy. She shows how clinicians can help psychiatric patients regain agency and autonomy through a positive therapeutic relationship characterized by mutual trust. Patients, she says, need to take an active role in regaining their agency and autonomy—specifically, by giving testimony, constructing a narrative of their experience to instill meaning, making choices about treatment, and deciding to show up and participate in life activities.
 
Gosselin examines how psychotic experience is medicalized and describes what it is like to be a patient receiving mental health care treatment. In addition to mutual trust, she says, a productive therapeutic relationship requires the clinician’s empathetic understanding of the patient’s experiences and perspective. She also explains why psychotic patients sometimes feel ambivalent about recovery and struggle to stay committed to it. The psychiatric ethics issues she examines include the development of epistemic agency and credibility, epistemic justice, the use of coercion, therapeutic alliance, the significance of choice, and the taking of responsibility. Mental Patient differs from straightforward memoirs of psychiatric illness in that it analyses philosophic issues related to psychosis and recovery, and it differs from other books on psychiatric ethics in that its analyses are drawn from the author’s first-person experiences as a mental patient.