MENTAL HEALTH

Most South Australians who have a mental illness are treated privately and the patient and the treating health care professional discuss and reach agreement concerning the treatment and care services to be provided to the patient.

For a minority of people with a psychiatric condition, their illness can affect their capacity to understand the illness and their capacity to discuss their condition with a treating doctor. Their behaviour may also be self-injurious or dangerous to others. The Mental Health Act 1993 provides the legal basis for the involuntary treatment and care of this minority of patients. All references in this chapter are to this Act unless otherwise stated.

It is generally accepted that involuntary admission to a specialist psychiatric hospital for emergency, short-term or long-term care should be used only where community-based care is judged as insufficient to meet the person's health care needs or where the admission is absolutely necessary to protect the person or other people.

Asylums and specialist psychiatric hospitals are being disbanded as treatment is more often provided within the community. South Australia still retains one large specialist psychiatric hospital, Glenside Hospital. Specialist psychiatric care, including involuntary care, is now available in a number of Approved Treatment Centres. Most of these specialist treatment centres are located in metropolitan or regional general hospitals, such as the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Flinders Medical Centre, Noarlunga Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.