Psychiatric advance directives: potential challenges in India.

Abstract

The advance directive is a statement of an individual's preference for future treatment. The concept initially evolved in the context of end-of-life treatment decision making. Subsequently, in some countries, advance directives have been promoted in the care and treatment of people with serious mental disorders. They have recently been endorsed by the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disability. In India, the legal framework related to the care of persons with mental illness is currently being reappraised, and significant changes are being contemplated. Thus, this is an appropriate time to review the existing evidence on psychiatric advance directives and examine the potential challenges involved in making them legally binding. A wide spectrum of mental health 'advance statements' have been developed and implemented in some high-resource countries. Of special interest to mental health contexts is the complex Ulysses contract to accommodate situations where the advance directive can be overridden during phases of acute illness or relapse. There have been mixed experiences with advance directives in the last couple of decades and there is scant evidence to suggest that they are effective in improving actual care. There has been almost no discourse in India on the issue of mental health advance directives. Yet this feature is being considered for implementation in the revised legal framework for the care of persons with mental illness. There are significant barriers to the feasibility and acceptability of legally mandated advance directives. There are logistical barriers to operationalising them in a manner that guarantees quality assurance of the process, and minimises the possibility of misuse. Thus, while the advance directive is a highly desirable clinical tool for collaborative decision making between the person with mental illness and the treatment provider, at this time, more needs to be done before legal enforcement is considered in India.