Rights and Legal Issues

Action Planning for Crisis, Prevention, and Recovery

• Mental Health Advance Directives:
  A User Guide for Maine Consumers
  This introductory guide explains how a Mental Health Advance Directive and a Power of Attorney for Mental Health Treatment work. The guide should be helpful to Maine consumers in deciding whether or not to make use of these legal tools. (Note: This guide is intended to be introductory, not exhaustive, and should not replace professional advice.)
• Making Advance Directives Work for You
  An article from the National Empowerment Center: A well-executed Advance Directive can be a means of lessening the use of coercive practices. A poorly executed one, however, could actually increase the use of coercion. There are a number of challenges to meet to ensure that an Advanced Directive is a friend and not a foe.
• Advance Health Care Directives
  Advance Health Care Directives for planning mental health care are legal documents that individuals can create to specify in advance their preferred course of treatment if they should experience a mental health crisis.
• SAMHSA's National Mental Health Information Center - Crisis Planning
• How is a Crisis Plan different from an Advance Directive and a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)?
• Sample Crisis Plan
• Persons Experiencing Psychiatric Crises: Information for Emergency Staff and Others Regarding Available Resources
• Protocols, and Requirements