GCCD Mental Health Patients Rights Questions

MENTAL HEALTH PATIENTS’ RIGHTS
MOSAIC FOREST
Alice Washington, 2004
Mental health patients have the same legal rights guaranteed to everyone by the
Constitution and laws of the United States and California.
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT:
 To dignity, privacy and
humane care
 To be free from harm
including unnecessary or
excessive physical
restraint, medication,
isolation, abuse and neglect
 To receive information
about your treatment and
to participate in planning
your treatment
 To consent or refuse to
consent to treatment, unless
there is a legally- defined
emergency or a legal
determination of incapacity
 To client-centered services
designed to meet your
individual goals, diverse
needs, concerns, strengths,
motivations and disabilities
 To treatment services
which increase your
ability to be more
independent
 To prompt medical care
and treatment
 To services and information
in a language you can
understand and that is
sensitive to cultural diversity
and special needs
 To keep and use your own
personal possessions
including toilet articles
 To have access to individual
storage space for your
private use
 To keep and spend a
reasonable sum of your
own money for small
purchases
 To have reasonable access
to telephones—both to
make and to receive
confidential calls or have
such calls made for you
 To have access to letter-
writing material and
stamps—to mail and to
receive unopened
correspondence
 To social interaction,
participation in community
activities, physical exercise
and recreational
opportunities
 To see visitors every day
 To wear your own clothes
 To see and receive the
services of a patientadvocate who has no
direct or indirect clinical
or administrative
responsibility for the
person receiving mental
health services
 To religious freedom and
practice
 To participate in
appropriate programs
of publicly supported
education
 To be free from
hazardous
procedures
 And all other rights as
provided by law or
regulation
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT YOUR
LOCAL COUNTY PATIENTS’ RIGHTS ADVOCATE:
Advocates Please Place
Your Address & Phone
Number Here
California Office of Patients’ Rights
1831 K Street, Sacramento, CA 95811-4114
(916) 504-5810, http://www.disabilityrightsca.org/
Department of Health Care Services
Mental Health Services Division Ombudsman
(800) 896-4042 or Email: mhombudsman@dhcs.ca.gov
Which of these rights surprised you? Why?
Pick 5 of the rights and state how you will ensure these rights are kept (be specific).
Describe a situation where a patient may lose a specific right.