What are my rights?
In this section we outline your human rights, the Mental Health Act 2001 and how it applies to you, the guidelines and the policies developed by the Mental Health Commission as it relates to your care while in hospital.
Everybody has rights. When we talk about rights, we mean our right to:
- Do things like be involved in decisions about ourselves.
- Have things like food, housing, and healthcare.
- Be treated in a certain way like to be protected from abuse or harm.
Rights come from lots of different places, but they mostly come from:
- laws
- conventions
- guidelines
- policies.
Laws: The Mental Health Act
The Mental Health Acts 2001-2018 (also known as ‘the Mental Health Act’) is the main law that covers mental health care and treatment in Ireland. It applies to both adults (aged 18 and over) and young people. There are some specific parts of the Act that only apply to young people. Some of these parts are only relevant if you have been diagnosed with what the Act calls ‘a mental disorder’. The Act says what must and must not happen if someone is diagnosed as having a mental disorder and needs to be admitted to hospital.
What do they mean when they talk about a ‘mental disorder’?
In summary, the Act describes a mental disorder as:
- where a person has a mental illness and there is a serious risk that they may cause immediate and serious harm to themselves or others.
Or
- where someone has a mental illness where without going to hospital the condition could get worse and where going into hospital would be likely to improve their mental health significantly.
You will see that the word ‘serious’ is used. So if you have a mild bout of depression (a few days of feeling very low), it is very unlikely you will be detained under the Act.
Professionals will start to consider whether you should be detained under the Act only when you begin to get really unwell, or people are concerned that you could do something, because of your mental state, that might harm you or someone else. It is worth knowing that very few young people are detained in hospital.
Remember: Even if you are detained, you still have a lot of the rights that are described elsewhere in the Toolkit.
- Section 4 of the Act says your care team must consult you about any proposal to give treatment, and they must respect your rights.
- Section 23 of the Act describes what has to happen if, as a voluntary person, you try to leave hospital, or your parent or guardian tries to discharge you, but the doctor or nurse considers you should stay in hospital because you have a mental disorder.
- Section 25 of the Act is a very important section. It talks about what must happen for a young person to be detained under the Act. It says that you can be kept in hospital if the doctors consider that you are suffering from a mental disorder and that you need treatment in hospital that you are only likely to get if a court order is made (see webpage Why I am in hospital).
Conventions
All children and young people in the world have the same basic rights under conventions like:
- the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
You also have rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. Read more at the link Words you might hear
The Mental Health Commission has a Code of Practice that describes your rights during admission, transfer or discharge to and from hospital. There is more information about this in the section about admission on the webpage What happens when I am admitted to hospital? This Code is not something that your doctor or care team has to follow by law but describes how things should be. Read more at the link Words you might hear.
Some of your rights are enforceable. This means that they can be used to argue that something should be changed or can even be brought as a case to court. These are your rights under the law. Other rights are not enforceable by law but are best practice and can be used to argue your point of view.
Did you know that you have the right to:
- be heard and listened to properly on everything affecting you
- receive information in a way that you can understand and that you can remember
- good healthcare
- be looked after properly
- be treated well
- be protected from mistreatment
- not be discriminated against (treated unfairly) because of who you are
- be treated with dignity and respect.
What are my rights in hospital?
If you are under 18, in general, you do not have the legal right to decide whether to consent (agree) to mental health treatment or not. However, you still have lots of rights when you are in hospital. Some of your most important rights relate to:
Your care and treatment
- You have the right to be involved, as far as you can be, in the planning and delivery of your care and treatment. This means that your doctor or care team should listen to your views, wishes and feelings about your care and treatment. While your doctor or care team may not always agree with what you want, you also have the right to have a say on how your care and treatment is provided. Your views should be heard before anyone can decide whether or not you should have a particular treatment. If you disagree with your care and treatment plan, you can use Support Tool 6 to tell your doctor or care team why.
- You should be given clear and detailed information about your care and treatment. This means that you have the right to be fully informed about the type or nature of treatment that is being suggested, the reason for it and its likely effect on you.
- Your progress and possible changes in your care plan should be reviewed at regular intervals. You have the right to take part in this review and to have a say on how useful or effective you have found your care and treatment.
- You have the right to have contact with family and friends either through visits or on the phone (except under exceptional circumstances).
Your individuality
- You have the right to have your individuality respected while in hospital. This means that you should not be discriminated against (treated unfairly) because of things like your race, gender,
sexual orientation, age, religion or membership of the Traveller community. - You have the right to express yourself openly and you can ask to be called by the name and by
the pronouns you would like to be known by. - You have the right to practise your religion and to take part in things that are important to your culture.
You have the right to access education that is suitable for you. This means that your hospital must provide you with educational support. The hospital that you are in has a school that you can attend if you are well enough to do so.
Your privacy and confidentiality
- You have the right to privacy while you are in hospital. Mostly, this means that staff must ask for permission to enter your room, and they should enable you to make private phone calls. However, there might be times where you have less privacy than usual. This might happen if your care team are worried about the safety of you or someone else.
- You have the right to confidentiality in hospital. This means that only people involved in your care and treatment who ‘need to know’ should have access to your personal information.
- Your hospital should have a confidentiality policy that describes what information about you can be kept confidential, and the rare occasions when confidentiality can be broken. Things that you say may be logged and shared by staff to help them support you. Your information might also be shared with your parent(s) or legal guardian. There are laws on data protection that your hospital must follow, and your information should be kept safe if it is stored online.
- You have the right to your own personal freedom except where provided for by law. For example, it is only on rare occasions that you can be detained under the Mental Health Act.
- When you are in hospital, on very rare occasions, you might be restrained or secluded. Staff can only use restraint and seclusion as a last resort. They must also record every time that restraint or seclusion is used and report it to the Mental Health Commission.
- Physical restraint: This is when you are prevented from moving your body by another person or persons. Staff in hospital can restrain you physically in an emergency to stop you from seriously harming yourself or others. However, staff are not allowed to use mechanical devices like handcuffs or straps to restrain you if you are under 18.
— The Mental Health Commission has a Code Practice on the use of restraint that all hospital staff are required to follow. - Seclusion: This is when you are placed or left in any room at any time, day or night, and are prevented from leaving that room. You can only be secluded in an emergency to stop you from seriously harming yourself or others.
— The Mental Health Commission has very clear Rules on the use of seclusion that all hospital staff must follow. Not all hospitals have a seclusion room. Your key worker is probably the best person to speak to if you have any questions.
