Psychologist`perception regarding psychiatric medical assistance (legal and ethical aspects)
Psychologist`perception regarding psychiatric medical assistance (legal and ethical aspects)

Summary/Abstract: The medical staff’s perception towards psychiatric medical assistance shows an aspect of psychiatry which involves stigma, isolation and discrimination. The purpose of this re-search is to evaluate the opinions of professionals involved in mental health care regard-ing medical assistance for patients admitted in psychiatric institutions. The purpose of this study is to highlight ethical and legal aspects of psychiatric medical assistance. It is of high importance for psychologists involved in therapy to know the patients' rights. Materials and methods: This is a prospective study, accomplished with the help of the med-ical staff involved in psychiatric assistance for mentally ill patients. In that regard, 60 psy-chologists from medical centres from Iași, Vaslui, Botoșani and Suceava were asked to con-tribute. The study is descriptive by nature, it is questionnaire based, spanning from July 2012 - July 2013. Results: A high number of psychologists consider that it is of high importance to keep con-fidentiality and to divulge personal and medical data of patients to family and po lice/legal representatives only. The psychologist’s opinion regarding non-voluntary admission of a patient with mental illness is positive only when emergency situations require it - an indi-vidual who poses a risk to himself or others. Conclusions: In situations when personal information is divulged by the medical team, the patient’s reinsertion is virtually impossible to achieve professionally wise. The discrimina-tion of patients with mental illness generates integration problems, self-loathing and hostil-ity towards treatment. From the psychologist's point of view, society usually adopts a dis-criminating attitude towards mentally ill patients.

• Details
• Contents