• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.85-111
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• 2016

This study aims to analyse major changes of Mental Health Promotion and Welfare Service Support Act(MHPWSSA) and critically discuss these changes based on the major discourses on Mental Health Act revision. For this purposes this study reviewed literatures and government reports to understand human rights discourses, welfare discourses, and prevention discourses. Secondly, the major changes of MHPWSSA were analysed and discussed based on those discourses. This study found that MHPWSSA defined the concept of people with mental disorders narrowly, tightened the involuntary admission procedures, introduced welfare service support provisions and mental health promotion provisions. But this study shows that the new legislation may well be criticised due to neglect of the concept of disability and people with psychiatric disability, involuntary admission without mental capacity assessment, neglect of the basic values and principles of self determination and independent living common in welfare of the persons with disability. And the new legislation may be criticised due to overuse of the concept of mental health promotion as encompassing promotion, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.17
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• pp.87-107
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• 1991

• 한국사회복지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1995.04b
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• pp.81-98
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• 1995

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.155-206
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• 2023

When a person with diminished mental capacity refuses necessary medical care, normative judgments about when paternalistic intervention can be justified come into question. A typical example is involuntary hospitalization for people with mental disabilities, traditionally governed by mental health law. However, Korean civil law reform in 2011 introduced a new form of involuntary hospitalization through guardianship legislation, leading to a dualized system to involuntary hospitalization. Consequently, a conflict has arisen between the 'best interest and surrogate decision-making' paradigm of civil law and the 'social defense and preventive detention' paradigm of mental health law. Many countries have criticized this dualized system as not only inefficient but also unfair. Moreover, the requirement for the presence of 'mental illness' for involuntary hospitalization under mental health law has faced criticism for unfairly discriminating against people with mental disabilities. In response, attempts have been made to integrate guardianship legislation and mental health law based on mental capacity. This study examines the legislative process and framework of the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, which reorganized the mental health care system by fusing guardianship legislation with mental health law based on mental capacity. By analyzing the case of Northern Ireland, which has grappled with conflicts between guardianship legislation and mental health law since the 1990s and recently proposed mental capacity as a single, non-discriminatory standard, we aimed to offer insights for the Korean guardianship and mental health systems.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.39
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• pp.350-373
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• 1999

The patient population of U. S. state mental hospitals has changed drastically since the 1960s, when the deintstitutionalization movement began. This paper is designed to look at what happened to the number of inpatients of state hospitals in California during the last 150 years and, from this, to explore implications for the future of the mental health system in Korea, especially for the viability of mental hospitals. The data had been collected by field research(visits to state hospitals and State Department of Mental Health, and interviews with mental health administrators) and accessing statistical publications and various reports. Since the first state hospital opened in 1851 the statewide inpatient population of individuals who were mentally disabled has grown and peaked at 37,489 in 1959. The number of patients in state hospitals, however, began declining in the early 1960s and was reduced to 10,874 by 1971, and to 4,973 by 1986. As of 1997, there were only 4, 263 inpatients remaining in the state hospital system. This dramatic decrease slowed down somewhat in 1980s and 1990s, but this trend seems irreversible except for the inpatients referred by the court. Now the beds in state hospitals are filled with more and more forensic patients, which constitutes nearly 70% of the total inpatient population. Based on these findings, it is well expected that the number of inpatients of mental hospitals in Korea will also be reduced in a significant way as the community-based mental health care system is gradually replacing the traditional one. Mental hospitals need to introduce more diversified programs for the care of the mentally ill, and concurrently more vigorous aftercare programs are required in the community.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.97-110
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• 2006

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.297-326
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was firstly to analyse the conceptualization of disability of the Mental Health Act and related laws and to suggest revision of the definition of psychiatric disability of Mental Health Act to improve the protection of human rights and welfare of the people with psychiatric disability. For these purposes this paper reflected on the disability models of WHO(1980, 2001) and multiple paradigm of disability of Priestley(1998) and suggested a new conceptualization of disability consists of impairment, functional disability, and social interactional disability. Based on the analyses of conceptualizations of psychiatric disability of related laws, this study suggested revision of Mental Health Act to distinguish between mental disorder and psychiatric disability, to introduce the definition of mental capacity, and to expand the conceptualization of social interactional disability.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.221-254
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• 2015

The amendment of the Korea Civil Code will take place July 1, 2013. One of the most import issues related to adult guardianship system is a part. Though more than 100 new provisions, the revised Civil Code fundamentally reformed the guardianship system to establish a system to meet the diverse and complex needs of those who need a guardian and ensure due process. The new adult guardianship system intended to respect dignity and human right of mentally incapacitated adults, to guaranee their autunomy and to minimize the public interventions for assisting them. The new guardianship system for vulnerable adult has three kinds of legal guardianship system (adult guardianship, limited guardianship and specific guardianship). Mental patients forced the hospitalization of the mental health code and will be treated as an agreement incapable person. In principle an agreement incapable person has capacity of consent. The consent of the mental patients are admitted first. It is advisable to medical care only by the consent of the guardian when the the mental patient do not agree ability. If the mental patient do not agree with the mentally ill, but there should be a supervisory capacity for a guardianship of the couple guardian supervision. In conclusion, it not lost the capacity to consent to inpatient mental illness called. Therefore, we must discuss in detail the scope of the agreement for the mental patients. Mental Health Act amendments are necessary in accordance with the amended Civil Code.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.18
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• pp.1-24
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• 1991

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.99-137
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• 2018

Under the Korean law, there are two routes of involuntary civil commitment of the mentally-ill: involuntary commitment process under the Mental Health Act (MHA) and the guardian's commitment backed up by family court approval under article 947-2 (2) of the Civil Code. Despite of the recent fundamental revision of MHA in 2016, the Korean involuntary commitment law has still serious flaws, especially the lack of due process like prior notice, hearing, and independent guardian ad litem for the mentally-ill, which has been pointed out also by the Korean Constitutional Court. Thus, a re-revision is inevitable, and this time, we should proceed to rebuild the underlying structure of involuntary commitment. In this regard, it is crucial to eliminate the old-fashioned and unjustifiable burden as well as power of the so-called responsible person to protect the mentally-ill and to readjust the causes and standings to petition of the various types of involuntary commitment process. Also it is necessary to repeal involuntary commitment by guardian under the Civil Code, article 947-2 (2), which can no longer harmonize with modern involuntary commitment system.