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31 March 2006

Module 5: Consent to Treatment

With regard to the giving of E.C.T. and a second consultant is asked to review the involuntary client, has this consultant to be an independant consultant or one from the same hospital?

If an involuntary patient is unable or unwilling to give his/her consent for a programme of ECT, the Mental Health Act, 2001 requires that the ECT must be approved by the consultant psychiatrist responsible for the care and treatment of the patient in a form specified by the Commission (Form 16). This consultant psychiatrist then refers the matter to another consultant psychiatrist to authorise the programme of ECT.

The Act does not specify where the other consultant psychiatrist is from. This is a matter for the HSE to determine.