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Empower People With Mental Illness Through Ulysses Arrangements, Judy A. Clausen Professor

Judy A. Clausen Professor

Acute episodes of mental illness often prevent people from realizing they are sick and cause them to refuse intervention. Once a person refuses treatment, the only way she can obtain care is as an involuntary patient. By the time a person's behavior meets the strict criteria to warrant involuntary hospitalization, devastation has often already occurred. This Article argues that a person should have the right to enter a Ulysses arrangement, a special type of mental health advance directive, through which a person authorizes a doctor to administer treatment during a future episode even if the episode induces the person to …