2026-10-07T16:53:44Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/32805437 2026-10-01T16:16:10Z portal_1172 item_type_8 month_year_10_2026

Mental health legislation, human rights, and psychiatric practice Brendan Kelly (1613614) PUREID: 673930354 mental health legislation Human Rights psychiatry This thesis brings together a sustained body of scholarship examining the relationship between mental health legislation, human rights law, and psychiatric practice across multiple jurisdictions. The work explores how legal frameworks shape, and are shaped by, evolving conceptions of autonomy, capacity, risk, and therapeutic obligation in mental healthcare.<br><br>A central theme is analysis of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its implications for mental health and capacity law. The publications interrogate differing interpretations of the CRPD within international scholarship and among UN bodies, and assess their consequences for domestic legislation in Ireland, England and Wales, India, and elsewhere. Particular attention is paid to questions of involuntary admission, substitute decision-making, and the role of “best interests,” arguing for legally and clinically workable approaches that reconcile autonomy with care obligations.<br><br>The thesis also includes detailed doctrinal and policy analyses of legislative reform in the Republic of Ireland, including the Mental Health Act 2001, the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, emergency mental health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Mental Health Bill 2024. These publications combine close statutory interpretation with normative critique and proposals for reform, and are situated within broader comparative and international contexts.<br><br>Complementing this doctrinal work, the thesis presents empirical research examining patterns and determinants of involuntary admission and mental health tribunal outcomes in Ireland. This research integrates legal analysis with clinical data to illuminate how legislation operates in practice, including variations by gender, age, and country of origin.<br>Collectively, the work advances an integrated model of mental health law that links human rights standards, legislative design, and everyday psychiatric practice, with the aim of promoting individual rights, therapeutic purpose, and proportionality within mental healthcare systems. 2026-10-01T16:16:10Z Text Thesis 10.17034/32805437.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Mental_health_legislation_human_rights_and_psychiatric_practice/32805437 All Rights Reserved