Abstract

An advance directive is a way of making a person's views known if he or she should become mentally incapable of giving consent to treatment, or making informed choices about treatment, at some future time. Advance Directives in Mental Health is a comprehensive and accessible guide for mental health professionals advising service users on their choices about treatment in the event of future episodes of mental illness, covering all ideological, legal and medical aspects of advance directives.

Jacqueline Atkinson explains their origins and significance in the context of mental health legislation and compares advance directives in mental health with those in other areas of medicine like dementia or terminal illness, offering a general overview of the differences in the laws of various English-speaking countries. She explores issues of autonomy and responsibility in mental health and gives practical advice on how to set up, implement and change advance directives.

The book offers a useful overview of advance directives and is a key reference for all mental health professionals as well as postgraduate students, lawyers who work with mentally ill people, service users and their families and carers.

`A book which covers a range of issues relating to advance directives, providing an overview of their use, and designed to act as a reference work for professionals and families.'
Current Awareness Service (CAS)
It is exceedingly rich in content with a great deal of interesting and relevant information.
Scolag Legal Journal

`Advance Directives in Mental Health is a timely contribution to a rapidly evolving aspect of social change that the author has been able to extensively research.

Well Written and readable, this academic text is well researched and will be of interest to social work students and researchers. As a reference text, it offers invaluable advice and assistance to social workers - and of course other professionals. As a `self help manual; I would commend it to people suffering from a serious mental illness, as well as their families and carers.'

Professional Social Work
There are many take home messages in this book, and issues are explored with a clear sighted view of both the conceptual and practical problems involved in advance directives. Advance Directives in Mental Health offers a useful overview of an important area of mental health care and is a valuable reference for clinicians, students, laywers and those who work with service users and their families and carers. It is clearly written and well referenced, with the bibliography providing a rich source of original material.'
Metapsychology Online Reviews
Jacqueline Atkinson holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Hull and is currently Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. She has been researching advance directives for about five years and mental health law for over ten. She has extensive experience of working in a number of professional bodies and university committees and spends her free time promoting understanding of mental health issues.
`Advance statements, advance directives, psychiatric wills, advance decisions, advance agreements… There is a bewildering array of terms currently in circulation to describe ways in which people who use mental health services can plan for the future and have a measure of control over what happens to them when they are in distress. In this book Jacqueline Atkinson provides a very clear and comprehensive guide to these terms, what they mean in practice, and the legal, ethical and medical issues that they involve in relation to mental health.'
Mental Health Today
` This is a well-written book which provides thorough analysis of advance directives within mental health practice in England. After reading this, you should be in a better position to understand the pressures facing these parents and the mental health practitioners working with them'.
Cafcass, within Channel C staff publication
This is an important book, filling a significant gap in the literature and offering impressive coverage of both theoretical and practical concerns.
Ethics and Social Welfare