Elyn Saks, Associated Dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School, is considered an expert in mental health law. In 2009, Saks was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship for her work as a "mental health lawyer expanding the options for those suffering from severe mental illness through scholarship, practice, and policy informed by a life that adds uncommon depth and insight."
Saks was recently interviewed by Alysa Solomon, Ph.D, of the Los Angles County Department of Mental Health, where she speaks about her experiences growing up with mental illness, including in-patient psychiatric care and the use of restraints.To hear her interview, click here.
In the Introduction of Refusing Care: Forced Treatment and the Rights of the Mentally Ill, Saks writes that "it has been said that how a society treats its least well-off members says a lot about its humanity. Our treatment of the mentally ill says that American society is inhumane."
In her book she asks, "when should we treat those who don't want treatment, and when should we respect their choices?" According to Saks, determining competence is an exercise in "value choices," where societal norms dominate when defining competence. Saks believes that the standard for competence should be the same for those living with mental health issues as for the healthy, thus in determining incompetence, as in requiring forced medication or seclusion and restraint, standards should be the same for those living with and/or living without mental illness. "Nobody would dream of authorizing, say a doctor, to force treatment of some kind on a perfectly competent, unimpaired person solely because that would be in his best interests." Although the book isn't in our city library, you can read excerpts and order it through Amazon.com.
