Do living wills have the potential to further ensure the rights of people with a mental illness?
Living wills, if given statutory authority, have significant potential to ensure the wishes of a person are abided by and their right to make decisions for themselves protected. They provide for the person to be involved more formally in planning their life, particularly prior to becoming unwell, and losing the capacity to make certain decisions. If they are not provided for within statute and health care professionals required to take notice of them it is unlikely that they will have as much impact. It is the Public Guardian’s experience that even as the legal guardian of people with mental health problems it is often difficult to gain co-operation from mental health professionals in developing plans or to have medical practitioners in this field seek consent for the use of medication as required under Part 5 of the Guardianship Act 1987 (NSW). Despite well accepted principles about people being involved in decision making and recent judgements concerning informed consent these areas
