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KMID : 0986720100180010055
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Korean Journal of Medicine and Law
2010 Volume.18 No. 1 p.55 ~ p.77
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Outpatient treatment orders for mental health system
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Shin Eun-Joo
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Abstract
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On March 21, 2008, a part of Korea"s Mental Health Acts was amended to establish a new system of outpatient commitment. The purpose of the bill, which had come into force as of March 22, 2009, is to allow a mental patient to receive involuntary treatment as an outpatient instead of force them to the hospital.
The new bill, outpatient commitment system, seeks to overcome the issues of involuntary hospitalization by allowing patient to stay in their community and ordain them to receive medical treatment. The amended law tries to minimize possible deprivation of liberty by applying the rule only to those who have been subjected under the involuntary hospitalization. The outpatient commitment system still places restrictions on a patient"s liberty by forcing them to receive medical treatment. However, the degree of such dispossession is very limited compare to that of involuntary hospitalization and to that extent, it is an alternative to involuntary hospitalization.
Nevertheless, the issue of human rights violation for the new system is a matter of dispute as it yet forces a patient to receive mandatory treatment regardless of the patient"s will. Moreover, considering the fact that the purpose of such involuntary treatment while allowing the patient to stay outside of hospital is to prevent aggravation of the patient"s state of illness or to avert possible harm that the patient might bring to the society, the new regulation must be understood as a precautionary order. However, forcing a patient to follow a certain course of action on the basis of a situation which has not been actualized in reality but to prevent such situation from happening in the future beforehand is indeed an invasion of a patient"s liberty and therefore question of its constitutionality remains to be resolved.
In the meantime, in order for the new system to be effective, development of various treatment programs are essential as well as proper regulation and management of the outpatients. In addition to that, government"s subsidies for the patients must also be followed for the success of the amended law. Without such institutional foundations, the new system will just be nominal.
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KEYWORD
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an outpatient commitment, an involuntary treatment, a mental patient, a mental disorder
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