Service Users' Experiences of Voluntary Admission to Mental Hospital: A Review of Research Literature

Abstract

Australia and New Zealand are committed to upholding the rights of people who experience mental illness and providing a “recovery” approach to service delivery. These have far-reaching implications for acute inpatients, many of whom are admitted voluntarily. In order to inform future research in these two countries, this review aimed to identify literature pertaining to the experiences of people admitted voluntarily to acute adult mental health facilities. Literature was limited to studies in English published between 1993 and 2013. Perceived coercion was the focus of most studies, many of which reported that voluntary service users do not always experience their admission and treatment as strictly voluntary. Two smaller bodies of literature reported that service users were limited in their ability to make informed choices and had poor knowledge of their rights and legal status. Further research on informed consent, knowledge of rights, and access to advocacy is warranted.

Key words:

• acute admission
• coercion
• informed consent
• mental hospital
• patient experience
• psychiatric hospital
• rights
• voluntary patient
• voluntary service user
• voluntary admission