Chapter 11: The ethical mental health nurse
Case Study: Community mental health nurse
Sean lives with Joanne and their three young children, Zac, Lucy and Ben. You are Sean’s community mental health nurse and have been supporting Sean and his family since his discharge from hospital. Sean had been admitted to hospital on section 2 of the MHA following a period of psychotic depression which commenced after he was made redundant from the insurance company he had worked for since leaving school 15 years earlier. He had been treated with antipsychotic medication but states that he feels better wants to stop taking the tablets as he feels that he is ‘over it’. Sean’s partner, Joanne, intercepts you as you get out of your car. She tells you that Sean hasn’t been taking his tablets and has been reluctant to go to bed at night because he is fearful that somebody will break into their house and murder them all in their beds during the night. She pleads with you not to tell Sean that she has told you this and asks you to persuade him to start taking his medication again. Joanne is aware that a major side effect of the medication is tiredness, but asks you to keep this information from Sean, otherwise he will refuse to take it and he is scaring the children by his behaviour. What do you do?
There are a number of ethical principles at stake here – what do you think that they are?