Mental Health Nursing
Introduction
The Mental Health Act of 2007 is legislation in New South Wales, Australia that seeks to provide a framework on which the treatment, care, and handling of mentally disordered and ill patients can base its operations and activities. The legislation also caters to other pertinent aspects of the mental health sector dealing with issues such as caregivers, nurses’ involvement, and all powers and privileges accorded to the people involved in the mental health treatment and care-giving scenario. Therefore, as part of this paper’s endeavor, an investigation into certain aspects covered by the NSW Mental Health Act of 2007 in relation to the role of nurses in the welfare of mentally disorderly and ill patients is favorable.
Part A
The NSW Mental Health Act of 2007 has many provisions that cater to every aspect of the treatment, handling, and control of mentally ill and disorderly patients. One important aspect of this sensitive issue is the extent to which caregivers and their family members can get involved or involve themselves in the treatment and handling of the consumer, or patients’ treatment regime. The NSW Mental Health Act of 2007 makes several provisions to ensure these parties play an active and befitting role in ensuring the recovery of the consumers. The provisions that delineate the involvement of caregivers and family members in the NSW Mental Health Act of 2007 falls under Part 9, section B. The first point of this section of the provision explains the appointment of the caregiver by the consumer, if possible. A caregiver is a person who the consumers of treatment chooses or has chosen for him through paternalistic methods for the reason of overseeing all treatment processes and activities (Bonsack, 2012). According to the Act, the caretaker can be a spouse, guardian, de-facto spouse, a close friend, family member, or supporter whose agenda is non-commercial. These caregivers serve under certain rules and conditions set about by the Act, which depend on the consumer’s ability to make a choice regarding their caregiver.
One important consideration for these provisions is to reduce the paternalistic treatment of mentally ill and disorderly patients as per the demands of the recovery movement and Australian constitution regarding the rights and privileges of these patients. Naturally, the consumer or patient is empowered by the Mental Health Act to make the decision about his caregiver if they are in a medically fit position to do it. In addition, Part 9, Section B of the Mental Health Act provides the consumer or his caregivers the guidance on issues related to the treatment. Different aspects are covered concerning the involvement of caregivers and family members. They are; the choice of treatment, access and sharing of information, confidentiality, financial aspects of the treatment, and other medical-related issues (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. and Madden, 2005). First, the Act’s provision indicate the level to which the caretaker can influence the consumer’s diagnosis, treatment and drugs used, handling and management of results and …
