Durable Power of Attorney for Mental Health Care

Programs that provide assistance for people who want to prepare an advance psychiatric directive which officially authorizes another individual to make mental health care decisions on their behalf should they become legally incompetent to make their own decisions; provides instructions about the circumstances under which they can change their agent and who should be appointed as their guardian if a court decides to name one; documents their wishes regarding hospitalization and alternatives to hospitalization, medications, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), emergency interventions (including seclusion, restraint and medication) and experimental studies or drug trials; provides instructions regarding who should be notified in case of psychiatric hospitalization, who should be allowed to visit (or be prevented from visiting) and who should have temporary custody of their children; and specifies whether they have the right to suspend or terminate the power of attorney, if permitted within the jurisdiction, while incapacitated.