Compulsory treatment

Involuntary commitment or civil commitment (also known informally as sectioning or being sectioned in some jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom) is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qualified agent to have symptoms of severe mental disorder is ordered by a court into treatment in a psychiatric hospital (inpatient) or in the community (outpatient). Involuntary commitment or civil commitment (also known informally as sectioning or being sectioned in some jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom) is a legal process through which an individual who is deemed by a qualified agent to have symptoms of severe mental disorder is ordered by a court into treatment in a psychiatric hospital (inpatient) or in the community (outpatient). Criteria for civil commitment are established by laws which vary between nations. Commitment proceedings often follow a period of emergency hospitalization, during which an individual with acute psychiatric symptoms is confined for a relatively short duration (e.g. 72 hours) in a treatment facility for evaluation and stabilization by mental health professionals who may then determine whether further civil commitment is appropriate or necessary. If civil commitment proceedings follow, then the evaluation is presented in a formal court hearing where testimony and other evidence may also be submitted. The subject of the hearing is typically entitled to legal counsel and may challenge a commitment order through habeas corpus. Historically, until the first third of the twentieth century or later in most jurisdictions, all committals to public psychiatric facilities and most committals to private ones were involuntary. Since then, there have been alternating trends towards the abolition or substantial reduction of involuntary commitment, a trend known as 'deinstitutionalisation'. In most jurisdictions, involuntary commitment is applied to individuals believed to be experiencing a mental illness that impairs their ability to reason to such an extent that the agents of the law, state, or courts determine that decisions will be made for the individual under a legal framework. In some jurisdictions, this is a proceeding distinct from being found incompetent.