Ambivalence, Contradiction, and Symbiosis: Carers’ and Mental Health Users’ Rights

Abstract

This article explores the emergence of separate rights for carers and psychiatric service users. Although political rhetoric and policy documents largely assume symbiosis between carer and cared‐for person, increasingly the law reflects that their rights and interests may conflict and operate in opposition one to another. This article examines the social and policy factors that lie behind these developments and disentangles some of the ambivalences, contradictions, and symbioses that characterize this area of law. While service users’ rights in relation to decisions about their care have emerged from the shadow of family rights, carers’ rights to community support services have emerged as an adjunct to service users’ rights. The article explores the development of the rights paradigm in promoting the welfare of mentally disordered people and their carer, and the current limits of separation between their respective entitlements.