Problems in Patient Rights Advocacy in Psychiatric Care

: Based on a Survey Report Issued by the Osaka Center for Mental Health and Human Rights

Abstract

Psychiatric disease is specified as one of the five major diseases and classified in the Medical Care Plan into a category of diseases to be addressed by regional medical care by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Information on the hospitalization system of psychiatric hospitals, however, is in general not sufficiently known. Compared with other medical facilities, psychiatric hospitals in Japan have a unique system. Patients with psychiatric diseases can be hospitalized without the patient’s consent from the viewpoint of protection of the patient by medical care, and under certain conditions, inpatients with psychiatric diseases can be placed under behavioral constraint. In light of such circumstances, the Act on Mental Health and Welfare for the Mentally Disabled specified a human rights protection system. However, in practice, the system is not sufficiently functioning and cases of abuse in psychiatric hospitals have yet to be eliminated. The Osaka Center for Mental Health and Human Rights implemented a survey on rights advocacy for inpatients with psychiatric diseases. This paper examines the problems vis-à-vis rights advocacy in psychiatric care based on the survey report issued by the Osaka Center for Mental Health and Human Rights and discusses how rights advocacy should be in the future.