Skip to ContentGo to accessibility page
OpenStax Logo
Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing

Introduction

Psychiatric-Mental Health NursingIntroduction
Figure 11.1 Understanding all of the legal and ethical issues surrounding client care is critical to ensure the nurse can support a client who is unable to make their own choices and carry out their own actions. (credit: “Legal Gavel & Open Law Book” by “howtostartablogonline.net”/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

Chapter Outline

Introduction

Nurses have a responsibility to uphold ethical and legal practices, and, when complex issues arise and cause dispute, courts of law can intervene. The need for psychiatric care itself may become one of these complex issues. Federal and state laws provide for involuntary mental health services when a person’s mental health status presents a danger to themselves or other people or if they are gravely disabled. These laws vary by state (Legal Information Institute, 2023) and there is an expectation that nurses will understand their state requirements and nursing practice expectations.

States have an interest in protecting the public and the individual. At the same time, individuals have the right to refuse treatment. Involuntary care poses the fundamental right to refuse treatment against the rights of public safety and the safety of the individual. While striving to preserve autonomy, the law must balance rights with risks. If a person’s health state includes symptoms that alter their ability to make rational decisions—that is, resulting in harm to self or others—it may justify involuntary treatment. Nevertheless, in order to impose involuntary treatment on a person without their expressed consent, they must first be adjudicated incompetent.

PreviousNext
Order a print copy
Citation/Attribution
Reuse and redistribution of this content in digital or print format:
  • This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's prior written permission.
  • This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, which means that you can reuse and modify the material only for noncommercial purposes, must attribute OpenStax, and must distribute any derivative works under the same license.
  • Any commercial printing of this textbook, including using a local or custom printer, must be approved by OpenStax, and proper citation provided.
  • OpenStax-copyrighted images, activities, assessments, and similar components of this book are subject to the same licensing – CC-BY-NC-SA. They can be used for noncommercial purposes with attribution. Commercial use requires permission.
  • Permission requests: Anyone who intends to incorporate this content (including text, images, and other components) into large language models, use it in AI offerings, use it commercially (including in print), and/or has questions about another use case is welcome to complete our reuse request form.
Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/psychiatric-mental-health/pages/1-introduction

  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial digital format, then for every page that includes OpenStax content, you must license the derivative work under the same CC-BY-NC-SA license as the original, and include on every digital page view the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/psychiatric-mental-health/pages/1-introduction

Citation information

The information below includes the information needed to generate citations in most major styles (APA, MLA, etc.); you must reformat and organize the information as needed to fit the requirements of the style. Use the information below to generate a citation. We recommend using a citation tool such as this one.

© Jul 23, 2026 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo, and Rice University name, and Rice University logo trademarks, or wordmarks are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.