Thoroughly updated for its Fourth Edition, this award-winning handbook gives mental health professionals authoritative guidance on how the law affects their clinical practice. Each chapter presents case examples of legal issues that arise in practice, clearly explains the governing legal rules, their rationale, and their clinical impact, and offers concrete action guides to navigating clinico-legal dilemmas. This edition addresses crucial recent developments including new federal rules protecting patients' privacy, regulations minimizing use of seclusion and restraint, liability risks associated with newer psychiatric medications, malpractice risks in forensic psychiatry, and new structured assessment tools for violence risk, suicidality, and decisional capacity.

Updates to this edition: * Clinical and legal issues in the use of clozapine in treatment of schizophrenia* Clinical information and new cases involving tardive dyskinesia* Changes in civil and criminal law regarding right to refuse treatment* An update of clinical guidelines and legal regulations of ECT* An update on suicide risk assessment and new legal cases involving suicide* An update on violence risk assessment and new legal cases involving the duty to protect endangered third parties* New statutes and criminal sanctions regarding sexual misconduct * New statutes limiting the liability of therapists toward third parties who are injured or killed by patients* Changes in the relationship between psychiatrists and nonmedical therapists* Regulatory developments regarding physician impairment* Numerous tables and an updated glossary of legal terms* New section on common terms and abbreviations in legal citations

This book is specifically designed for new psychiatrists and all other medical professionals who lack the training necessary to confront the complicated legal and ethical issues that arise at the intersection of the mental health and judicial systems. Written by experts in the field, each chapter begins with a challenging case vignette synthesized from a historical legal case that places the reader in the role of the treatment provider. The text presents details of the legal case, historical significance, and the precedent it set before discussing the core principles of that particular subject area. Each chapter reviews the existing literature and reinforces the most salient points. Topics include risk assessment, substance misuse and the law, legal issues within child and adolescent psychiatry, involuntary medication considerations, and other challenges that are often not sufficiently addressed in training. The text is specifically designed for new psychiatrists and other professionals who are transitioning from their studies into clinical practice, concisely explaining and defining the issues in a practical, reader-friendly tone suitable as both a quick-reference in a busy environment or as a resource for private study. Psychiatry and the Law: Basic Principles is an excellent resource for new psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, students, and other professionals accommodating medical and legal boundaries in clinical practice.

As President of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL), it is a pleasure to write this foreword. Dr. Richard Rosner deserves full credit for helping AAPL pursue its educational goals by publishing a series of books. Consumerism and the civil rights movement have dramatically changed the practice of American psychiatry over the last 2 decades. Extensive legal regulation now makes it necessary for both general and forensic psychiatrists to keep abreast of changing laws. The contents of Volume II of Critical Issues in American Psychiatry and the Law demonstrate Dr. Rosner's gift for selecting and editing important theoretical and practical articles. This volume addresses a broad range of forensic issues. The pen dulum-like swings of laws regarding civil commitment and insanity are clearly illuminated by Dr. Quen's contribution, "Violence, Psychiatry, and the Law." A review of historical psychiatric testimony supporting insanity defenses on the bases of homicidal mania, moral insanity, and phrenological evidence should make modern forensic psychiatrists hum ble. However, some of our colleagues continue to testify that defendants were unable to refrain from criminal conduct because of CT evidence of schizophrenia, pathological gambling, or the effects of junk food. Excellent theoretical discussions are presented by Dr. Macklin ("A Philosophical Perspective on Ethics and Forensic Psychiatry") and Mr. Hughes ("Legal Aspects of Predicting Dangerousness"). These chapters present thorough, up-to-date, scholarly analyses of complex issues from the vantage point of non psychiatrists.

First published in 1999, this volume is a revision of an earlier edition, after which there has been a virtual transformation in the provision of mental health services, examining issues including disturbances in children and adolescents, severe and enduring mental illness, drugs, ethical issues and developing a psychotherapeutic approach to approved social work. Many asylums have been closed, community care has been introduced and law, policy and practice have necessitated institutional change although, at an operational level, resources and perceptions have not always kept pace with change, resulting in increased levels of stress and, sometimes, public tragedy. This revision attempts to reconsider these changes from a social work perspective, along with contributing to the debate on professional and interprofessional practice.

Written by two renowned leaders in the field, the much-anticipated fifth edition of Clinical Handbook of Psychiatry and the Law offers mental health professionals authoritative guidance on how today’s law affects clinical practice. Each chapter in this award-winning reference presents case examples of legal issues often seen in day-to-day practice; clearly explains the governing legal rules, their rationale, and their clinical impact; and offers concrete action guides to navigating clinicolegal dilemmas. It’s a must-have resource for anyone in the mental health field who needs an easy-to-read, practical handbook addressing both longstanding legal/ethical issues and crucial recent developments in the field.