Should a Person Diagnosed with a Mental Illness be Forced Legally to Take Prescription Medication?.
The laws of our nation were created to protect its citizens. Some regulations govern our everyday living, such as motor vehicle laws, one being wearing your seatbelt. Some may argue that they should have the freedom to choose whether they wear their seatbelt or not, even though wearing your seatbelt has been proven to help save lives. We Americans cherish our independence, but there are times when, for the good of the community, laws restricting our freedom must be made. As an observer of the mental health dilemma, I have reached the difficult conclusion that the freedom of those who choose not to take medications to control their symptoms of mental illness should be restricted. The community has a right, in fact, a responsibility, to care for those who cannot care for themselves. Members of families have a right to a stable home environment with no one member being an unnecessary, unending source of stress and grief. .
Under patients' rights laws dating from the 1960's the mentally ill cannot be forced into treatment involuntarily in any state unless they are dangerous or so gravely disabled that they cannot care for themselves. In short, the laws protecting patients' rights also protect their "right- to be mentally ill. Meanwhile, the fall of state-run mental hospitals in the 1970's and 1980's, as the treatment for the mentally ill was de-institutionalized, left families with the primary burden of caring for the mentally ill. For them, mental illness often becomes a real-life horror movie that drains out savings accounts, grinds away at family relations, and leaves them exhausted and dealing with doctors, judges, and police. .
All too often, the struggle ends in tragedy. There are so many stories of mentally ill people refusing to take their medication and, in turn, harming others or themselves.
