Draw Topic & Writing Ideas From This Essay On Relying On Mental Health Professionals

For decades courts have relied on the judgments of mental health professionals when deciding whether or not an individual is a danger to themselves or others but while there are those who claim this is a successful method, there are others who argue mental health professionals should not be allowed to decide the defendant in question’s fate. The main argument behind the latter is that the mental health professionals base their decision on symptoms one might find in a text book instead of by examining the individual in question. After all, not everyone thinks or behaves the same which makes general assumptions the wrong tool to use when one is determining whether or not a perpetrator should go to a mental institute or to prison. This decision is a critical one and should be taken seriously for history has proven how if someone is institutionalized against their will because they are not mentally ill, it is nearly impossible for them to leave.
Not only that but many patients have complained about being mistreated while being taken care of in mental institutions whether it was by being treated as inhumane instead of sick or by not being properly medicated. Even today these complaints are still heard especially when the individual filing it does not want to be medicated making one wonder if those in charge of the institution care about what the patients want or think at all. Nevertheless it was the testimony of the mental health professional that sends the individual to the mental institute because they believe, based on their clinical background, that they are a danger when they are often not and are sent there involuntarily anyway which makes one question the continuity of this practice.