The Massachusetts Psychiatric Society's Position Paper on Involuntary Psychiatric Admissions to General Hospitals

Believing that if general hospitals are pressured into admitting involuntary patients without adequate safeguards, care may deteriorate, the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society drafted a detailed position statement enumerating what resources and services would be required to provide the same high-quality care for involuntary as for voluntary patients. Among other points, treatment of involuntary patients should be considered "psychiatric intensive care," with attention given to the needs for special staffing, training, ancillary services, and funding. To provide high-quality care in the least restrictive environment, separate locked and unlocked units should be provided. Not all involuntary patients can be cared for within a general hospital, the statement says; some require specialized units more appropriately located elsewhere. The general hospital's willingness to accept involuntary patients should be contingent on its being able to control its admissions, and on the hospital's not being the provider of last resort.