Geriatric Psychiatry and the Law

Abstract

Section I Fundamentals.- 1. Geriatric Psychiatry: Legal and Forensic Issues.- Section II Competency and Informed Consent.- 2. Competency and Informed Consent in Geriatric Psychiatry.- 3. The Elderly, Incompetence, and Treatment Decisions: The New York Experience.- 4. Informed Consent and Competence Issues in the Elderly.- Section III the End of Life.- 5. Psychiatric Assessment of Competence to Choose to Die: Proposed Criteria.- 6. Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders: The Impact of Guidelines on Clinical Practice.- 7. Withholding Life Support from the Elderly, or Learning to Live with High-Tech Death.- 8. Euthanasia and Living Wills: The Rights of Patients to Participate in Their Deaths.- 9. Determining When or If a New York Patient May Be Allowed to Die: Navigating between the Perils of Scylla and Charybdis.- Section IV Diagnostic and Clinical Factors.- 10. Biological and Clinical Considerations in Geriatric Medicine.- 11. Depressive Illness in the Elderly: Legal and Ethical Issues.- 12. Neuropsychiatric Assessment of Dementia: Inadequacy of Test Protocols.- Section V Administrative and Social Policy Issues.- 13. Administrative and Forensic Considerations in the Operation of a Geriatric Psychiatry Service.- 14. Abuse of the Elderly: An Overview of the Problem and Solutions.- 15. Divorce and the Elderly.- 16.Non Compos Mentis: The Psychiatrist's Role in Guardianship and Conservatorship Proceedings Involving the Elderly.- 17. Rights of Nursing Home Residents.- 18. An Overview of the Elderly in the Criminal Justice System: Mental Health Perspectives.- 19. Ethical Considerations in Geriatric Forensic Psychiatry.- Section VI Ethnic Considerations: Overcoming Potential Bias.- 20. Issues in the Psychiatric-Legal Evaluation of the Black Elderly.- 21. Special Considerations in the Psychiatric-Legal Evaluation of the Hispanic Elderly.