person shall be respected and their rehabilitation sought. The patient is, as far as his condition
allows, informed as early as possible and in an appropriate manner about his condition, the decision
to admit him, his rights, the remedies that are open to him and the guarantees that have been
offered to him. The opinion of this person on the terms of the treatment must be sought and taken
into consideration as far as possible.
In practice, the procedures and forms for notifying patients of their rights
have not yet been fully mastered.
Hence, for example, the notification of the rights may be done inappropriately by healthcare
supervisors. The measures are sometimes notified on the basis of old forms, the users of which
themselves acknowledge that an update is necessary. Even though they are aware of their role, the
healthcare supervisors do not appear to always know how to exercise it and lament that the
procedure is too complicated. The admissions office sometimes does not perform any check, and
it is therefore impossible to know if and when all the decisions were effectively notified.
On the other hand, there are some places in which the opposite was observed, which also
has limits. The “admissionists” are perfectly knowledgeable of the laws in force and all of the
formalities required by law. While this method is secure as regards the procedures, the “human”
involvement of the administrators is somewhat lacking, according to the healthcare staff. Certain
healthcare supervisors prefer to carry out this task twice, to alleviate its impersonal and
administrative nature.
Numerous visits highlighted unsatisfactory procedures of notifying and informing the
patients. Also, even when the healthcare supervisors are perfectly comfortable with the procedure
and the associated pedagogy, sometimes, the notification is made very late (48 - 72 hours) due to a
lack of availability. In other cases, in general hospitals, the information given to the patients and
their families is insufficient, with a welcome booklet that contains practically nothing on psychiatry,
and very little information is displayed in the units.
Even when the procedures are adopted and implemented, it is still difficult to
provide satisfactory information on patients hospitalised without consent,
since for certain healthcare professionals, this obligation seems paradoxical.
The observations on patients hospitalised without consent are generally
collected, the rights are notified, an information document summarising them
is drafted and then displayed in the units, and is often given to the persons
involved. Therefore, everything that must be done is done, but the
notification lacks pedagogy and everything is done as if the the persons stating
the rights see no use in it, since they are, often rightly, convinced of their
ethics and the necessity of the treatment that they dispense. In fact, what is
the use of giving patients the means to protect themselves from people who
only want the best for them?
In one of the institutions visited by the CGLPL, these difficulties were identified by the
administration department, which made significant efforts in notifying the patients of the measures
and informing them of their rights. On observing that informing the patient on the means of
recourse, as required by law, were not always properly executed by the healthcare professionals,
the administration department set up an administrative staff-healthcare professional pair to carry
out the notifications. In this same institution - a general hospital - there was also a welcome booklet
specific to psychiatry.
The CGLPL visited only one institution in which notifying patients hospitalised without
their consent of their rights is not conducted as a general rule, either at the time of admission or
even anytime later. The professionals only care about the summons for the hearing by the liberty
and custody judge, who himself is not all that concerned about the absence of this notification.
16
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