Declaration for Mental Health Treatment

In October 2003, a law permitting a Declaration for Mental Health Treatment became effective. This mental health declaration allows you to state your own preferences regarding your mental health treatment and to name a person to make mental health care decisions for you when you cannot make these important decisions for yourself. You can name any adult, except your mental health treatment provider, but it should be a person that you know and trust, because that person will need to agree to make decisions for you.

Before the law allowing for a Declaration for Mental Health Treatment went into effect, the only document that could be used to name someone to make health decisions for another person was the durable health care power of attorney (DPOA). The DPOA addresses both mental and physical health issues, and still is sufficient for many Ohioans. However, the DPOA does not address mental health issues in any detailed way. Unlike some other health care issues, mental health issues can be more complex and their specific treatments (e.g. medication therapies) generally are not addressed in durable health care powers of attorney. If you have a mental illness or have been diagnosed with a mental illness in the past, and you already have a durable health care power of attorney, you also may wish to have a mental health declaration to address issues that might arise and are not specifically covered by your health care DPOA. The mental health declaration lets health care professionals know your own preferences regarding mental health care treatment. It also allows the person you have named in the declaration (your "proxy") to advocate for your stated choices and make other decisions in your best interest if you have not stated any preferences.

The mental health declaration:

• allows you to name an individual you know and trust to make decisions about your mental health treatment when you are unable to make them yourself;

• specifies when and how the declaration is used;

• specifically outlines the duties and rights of the person you designated to make your mental health decisions when you cannot and protects that person from liability;

• provides that your mental health declaration designee (proxy) cannot be overridden by the designee of any other durable health care power of attorney regarding decisions about your mental health;

• specifies that, if you have lost your capacity to make informed decisions about your mental health treatment, you will not be able to revoke or cancel the mental health declaration;

• stipulates that, if you have a living will (a document that conveys your wishes about your treatment during an end-of-life situation when you cannot make those decisions yourself), the living will overrides the mental health declaration.

Those who would benefit from having such a document include people who have been diagnosed with mental illness and people who find themselves or may find themselves in circumstances that would warrant a mental health declaration (including those of advanced age or those who have developed an illness that likely will include a mental component as it progresses).

Before you make any decisions, it would be wise to contact your legal professional and discuss the options available. Your legal professional also can help you complete the necessary form for a mental health declaration. It is also important that you discuss your treatment preferences with any mental health professional providing services to you. Additional information can be obtained from the Ohio Advocates for Mental Health or Ohio Legal Rights Service. Click here for the Mental Health Care Declaration form.

Prepared by:

• Ohio Hospice & Palliative Care Organization

• OSBA

• Ohio Legal Rights Service

• Ohio Advocates for Mental Health

top of page