To think it’s unethical to film in a psychiatric ward

[User56666]

I’ve just that Stacey Dooley has filmed another documentary in a mental health hospital. I’m shocked that this has been allowed especially in a pandemic.

Filming people around the time of mental health act assessments makes me questions the ethics.

Exactly. A moment of extreme powerlessness as your freedom and your right to decline medical intervention are held in the hands of strangers.

Are you going to feel able to appear awkward or angry to those people - who you know are judging your every move and have the power to remove your freedom and change the course of your life - by saying no to being filmed?

Well it now appears to have been pulled. It’s not showing on the TV guide for tonight

I agree. It's awful to make s programme like this. I think there's still terrible stigma about mental health.
I remember listening to a programme on the radio a while ago about people who had been sectioned. One woman was travelling to the hospital with two health professionals who were from another area and they ran into bad traffic. So the woman said - oh this road's terrible at rush hour, turn left here and take the A34 (or whatever) - and they completely ignored her. She said that was the moment that she realised she had no rights, her views didn't count, she was no longer an equal in the eyes of others.
I've never forgotten that.

@pointythings

Haenow fluctuating capacity is a thing, but it's arrogant to assume that just because someone is an inpatient, they do not have capacity to consent. In fact, you cannot even assume that someone who is on a section lacks the capacity to consent. I spent 12 years working in health research and it was hammered into us that capacity to consent must be assessed on a case by case basis, and consent must be reiterated at each visit. I would imagine the procedure for filming in the UK is similarly rigorous.

It would be unethical to exclude people with mental ill health from an opportunity to have a voice.

@pointythings

I did not not say “because someone is an inpatient”. I was clear my concern was around this type programme. They interviewed acutely mentally unwell people at the time of a serious enough crisis for them to be assessed under the mental health act.

The vast majority of patients who have a mental health condition will, of course, be able to consent. However, I have seen footage of people at the severest end of a mental health crisis. That is where I query consent in some people.

I have extensive professional experience in the area of mental capacity. Feel free to think I’m arrogant because I know my primary motive is to ensure people get to make their own decisions. I stand by my statement that some documentaries are exploitative and sensationalist. That said, I’ve seen some excellent, educational documentaries that are sensitive and respectful. Dooley’s prog, however, was not in the latter category.

It’s not about the right to consent, it’s capacity to consent and I have concerns over some types of documentaries. Filming people around the time of mental health act assessments makes me questions the ethics.

Capacity to consent is decision and time specific, and not determined simply by a person's mental health state. Undergoing a MH assessment therefore doesn't automatically mean a person lacks capacity to consent for this particular decision. Only those patients who were deemed to have capacity at the time, would have been filmed and interviewed, hence why others' faces are often blurred out etc on these programmes.

@LouJ85

It’s not about the right to consent, it’s capacity to consent and I have concerns over some types of documentaries. Filming people around the time of mental health act assessments makes me questions the ethics.

Capacity to consent is decision and time specific, and not determined simply by a person's mental health state. Undergoing a MH assessment therefore doesn't automatically mean a person lacks capacity to consent for this particular decision. Only those patients who were deemed to have capacity at the time, would have been filmed and interviewed, hence why others' faces are often blurred out etc on these programmes.

@LouJ85

I know. It’s my job.
Still, I have reason to believe mental capacity is in question over consent for some of these people in some of these documentaries.

I know. It’s my job.

Mine too.

@LouJ85

I know. It’s my job.

Mine too.

@LouJ85

Then we both understand the importance of informed consent and good quality, lawful MCA assessments. I’ve repeatedly said I don’t think all people lack capacity nor do I think all documentaries are unethical. I had serious concerns about some of the footage on this particular documentary.

I hate these sorts of programmes. I don't like making entertainment (and yes, Dooley will say it's not entertainment, but it absolutely is) out of people's misery. I hate the ones that follow police around and film people being arrested and so on also.