Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.09.1977, Side 30

24
2. Every patient must be offered the best therapy available and
be treated with the solicitude and respect due to the dignity of
all human beings and to their autonomy over their own lives and
health.
The psychiatrist is responsible for treatment given by the
staff members and owes them qualified supervision and education.
Whenever there is a need, or whenever a reasonable request is
forthcoming from the patient, the psychiatrist should seek the
help or the opinion of a more experiencei colleague.
3. A therapeutic relationship between patient and psychiatrist
is founded on mutual agreement. It requires trust, confidentia-
lity, openness, co-operation and mutual responsibility. Such a
relationship may not be possible to establish with some severly
ill patients. In that case, as in the treatment of children,
contact should be established with a person close to the patient
and acceptable for him or her.
If and when a relationship is established for purposes other
than therapeutic, such as in forensic psychiatry, its nature must
be thoroughly explained to the person concerned.
4. The psychiatrist should inform the patient of the nature of
the condition, of the proposed diagnostic and therapeutic proce-
dures, including possible altematives, and of the prognosis.
Ihe information must be offered in a considerate way and the
patient be given the opportunity to choose between appropriate
and available methods.
5. No procedure must be perfomted or treatment given against or
independent of the patient's own will, unless the patient lacks
capacity to express his or her own wishes or, owing to psychia-
tric illness, cannot see what is in his or her best interest or,
for the same reason, is a severe threat to others.
In these cases compulsory treatment may or should be given,
pi'ovided that it is done in the patient 's best interests and over
a reasonable period of time, a retroactive informed consent can
be presumed and, whenever possible, consent has been obtained
from someone close to the patient.
6. As soon as the above conditions for compulsory treatment no
longer apply, the patient must be released, unless he or she vol-
untarily consents to further treatment.
Wherever there is compulsory treatment or detention there must
be an independent and neutral body of appeal for regular inquiry
into these cases. Every patient must be informed of its exist-
ance and be permitted to appeal to it, personally or through a
representative, without interference by the hospital staff or by
anyone else.
7. The psychiatrist must never use the pxDssibilities of the pro-