Provides practical solutions for ending coercion in mental health care and realizing the universal right to legal capacity.

As a psychotherapist, what do you need to know about the law? How does the legal system support (or fail to support) your work or the delivery of mental health services generally? What can you do to make use of the law and the legal system to improve your practice and to protect yourself? Filling a significant gap in the social work and other psychotherapeutic literature, Legal Issues in Social Work, Counseling, and Mental Health presents clearly and comprehensively what mental health and other direct practice professionals need to know to respond to the legal issues that surround practice. This volume covers a wide range of topics, including providing testimony, responding to subpoenas, dealing with an attorney, influencing the legal system, and understanding the legal side of the business of psychotherapy. The author also discusses various direct practice and human service issues, incorporating some of the everyday legal issues these professionals encounter and using case material. The book educates counselors and clinicians on the function of the law in their professional lives. Through cases and case vignettes, the author illustrates the legal processes relevant to cliniciansÆ professional lives, and suggests "alternative behaviors for clinicians that would satisfy legal requirements, yet remain within sound practice." Helping to demystify the legal system, Legal Issues in Social Work, Counseling, and Mental Health will allow professionals and students in social work, human services, family studies, counseling, clinical psychology, pastoral counseling and psychotherapy a better understanding of the law.

I. OVERVIEW Legal Issues in Mental HeaIth Care is aimed at the mental health clinician who provides services on either an inpatient or an outpatient basis. It is written for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other therapists to help them understand and manage legal issues in their daily practice. The issues covered apply to therapists who work for an agency or hospital as weil as those who work independently. The book is meant to serve as a handbook, but it also provides a quick resource as legal questions arise which are related to the obligations of the therapist. It ad dresses the legal issues that confront the clinician. It is not aimed at the clinicianwho specializes in forensie mental health issues, because the information provided does not reach that level of detail or sophistication. Nor is it aimed at the scholar, because our goal is to provide practical information in a clear and concise format. Wehave not addressed the wide array of laws protecting the mentally disabled from discrirnina tion-most notably, the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)and the Fair Housing Act. Most states also have laws that prohibit discrimination in employment, services, and housing. These issues are beyond the scope of this book because we are address ing the legal issues that arise in providing care, rather than the rights of mentally disabled persons. 11. ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK The book consists of eleven chapters and a Glossary of Legal Terms.

Tells the human story of the litigants involved in landmark legal cases that changed how mental health treatment is practiced.