[A proposal of a patient psychiatric treatment and hospitalisation consent form]. / Propozycja formularzy zgody pacjenta na hospitalizacje psychiatryczna i leczenie.

The Polish medical law has accepted the rule of equivalence in the doctor-patient relationship. In this way it gave up on the medical paternalism". To a large extent, the newly passed or renewed Rules and Regulations were responsible for this. All Polish hospitals, the psychiatric ones amongst them, must abide the rules on patients' agreement to being hospitalised, examined and treated in accordance with the regulations on: the profession of the doctor and the dentist (passed on the 5th December 1996); on the patient's laws and the Speaker of Patient's Laws (passed on the 6th November 2008) and the Minister of Health Regulation on the type and range of medical records kept in the health care centres and the means of dealing with those records (from the 21st December 2006). Many hospitals have use their own adapted records, which are in accordance with those rules and regulations. There is no universal forms concerning the patient's consent to being admitted and treated in a psychiatric hospital. The problem that is taken on by the psychiatrists about the difference and specificity of psychiatric treatment and the situation of the patient being admitted onto a psychiatric ward, proves the general consent forms to be inadequate. The article shows the current and running regulations on the patient's consent to hospital admission, an agreement to receiving health care and receiving medical information and insight into medical records. The character, scope, types of patient's agreement and their forms have been discussed here. Appropriate form types and outlines are presented.

A review of the new provisions for sanctioning mentally disordered offenders in China, in a broader historical context.

Reforms of the criminal justice system in China in recent years have included the 2012 Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP), which resulted in new disposals for mentally disordered offenders. From a Western perspective, changes in Chinese criminal law are sometimes clichéd as toothless window dressing, but they may represent a genuine step forward in safeguarding human rights. Taking a historical perspective, this paper reveals that in the East, as much as in the West, there is a 'moral tradition' of not punishing mentally disordered offenders who are not considered responsible for their acts. There are clear differences in disposal for those acquitted having been found 'not guilty by reason of insanity'. Whereas Western jurisdictions have offered (criminal) courts the opportunity for commitment in (forensic) mental hospitals from the early 19th Century, in China, disposal has remained, until the recent changes, the responsibility of the administration (mainly the police) or the family of the offender. A few high profile cases brought to light the inadequacy of these arrangements and the general disregard of obvious mental health issues when sentencing offenders. There was lack of clarity regarding who would take responsibility for treatment and issues of future public protection arising from a mental disorder. The 2012 CCP introduces the power of mental health commitment by the judiciary for those found non-responsible for an offense because of a mental disorder. Similar to provisions in Western jurisdictions there remain human rights concerns regarding aspects of 2012 CCP and the role of 'preventive detention' for mentally disordered offenders on indeterminate secure mental health detention. Nevertheless, the shift to judicial decision making in such cases and the possibility of mental health commitment are welcome steps in improving the human rights of this vulnerable population.