Citation

Zonana HV. Virtual Mentor 2013; 15(10): 898-903.

Affiliation

Professor of psychiatry, director of the forensic psychiatry residency training program, and an adjunct clinical professor of law at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the bioethics committee at Yale-New Haven Hospital and a federal court monitor of standards for mental health care at the women's prison in York, Connecticut.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/virtualmentor.2013.15.10.oped1-1310

PMID

24152784

Abstract

Physicians have become accustomed to and appreciate the value provided by the availability of organ donor registries, cancer registries, and other disease registries. However, applying the registry concept in the mental health and corrections arenas raises questions about its ultimate effectiveness. The rationale for such registries is that they protect the public in several ways: by restricting the actions of those considered dangerous (e.g., by limiting the access to guns of people in mental health treatment or where sex offenders can live and work) and by making the government or the public aware of the presence of those considered dangerous (as in registries of sex offenders or mandated reporting of threats of harm). But these registries increase the stigmatization of those listed on them, and, because of their focus on those with mental illness, they distort and magnify the role of mental illness in violence.

Language: en