Restrictive practices and patients with impaired decision-making: Balancing duties and rights

Abstract

There is a legislative lacuna in South Australian laws governing patients who present to hospitals with a medically impaired decision-making capacity where restrictive practices are warranted to facilitate assessment, treatment or mitigate the risk of harm. In this article, the author employs Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory methodology to analyse how clinicians navigated this gap. A proposal is made to develop legal reforms balancing clinician duties with patients’ human rights, through standardised legislative frameworks with accessible avenues for redress for vulnerable patients.