Involuntary Commitment for Substance Abuse Included in or Excluded from Mental Health Commitment Legislation

The mission of the Swedish government’s National Commission on Substance Abuse was to analyze the access to substance abuse treatment and to clarify the division of responsibilities between health care and social services. As a part of this assignment a special analysis was performed on commitment to involuntary care. Involuntary commitment due to substance abuse has during many years been regulated by a specific legislation, The Care of Substance Abuser’s Act and not included in the regular commitment legislation for mental illness. The proposition put forward by the Commission was to terminate this legislation for commitment due to substance abuse and instead use the involuntary legislation for individuals with severe mental illness also for substance use disorder. This presentation will focus on the reasoning behind integrating commitment of people with substance use disorder into the involuntary care legislation for people with severe mental illness. The presentation will also look into the
consequences of the proposed change in regard to legislation, patients and institutions.