J.D. This issue of Massachusetts Psychologist is focused on hospitals. There are plenty of other issues, but here we'll discuss these three situations.
Patients can voluntarily enter a hospital for treatment.
One might assume that such a patient can voluntarily leave. Sometimes everyone is in agreement and there is a plan in place to support a patient's wish to leave a hospital. When everyone is in agreement, problems, of course, are minimized. However, it sometimes happens that a psychologist and the patient do not agree on the need for care in a secure environment. This basic standard may be easy to state, but it can be difficult to apply in many cases.