TY - JOUR
T1 - Malingered Mental Health
T2 - Legal Review and Clinical Challenges in English and Welsh Law
AU - Beazley, Peter
AU - Emmett, Charlotte
PY - 2022/4/27
Y1 - 2022/4/27
N2 - Malingering – the feigning of mental or physical health symptoms for external gain – is a significant problem for clinicians, the courts, and society. For clinicians working in mental health settings, it is a complex task to differentiate malingered presentations from genuine ones, with a range of potential legal and ethical questions facing the clinician who conducts this task. Yet, the malingering of mental health problems has a range of potential impacts. For the courts, malingering presents a significant threat to their basic function by acting as a significant impediment to truth. For society, malingering wastes clinical time, leaves the potential for injustice to occur in response to criminal acts, and has a significant financial burden in unwarranted civil payments. The focus of the present review is therefore to review the issue of malingering from a legal perspective, leading to a consideration of recommendations for a clinician faced with assessing a client suspected of malingering behaviour.
AB - Malingering – the feigning of mental or physical health symptoms for external gain – is a significant problem for clinicians, the courts, and society. For clinicians working in mental health settings, it is a complex task to differentiate malingered presentations from genuine ones, with a range of potential legal and ethical questions facing the clinician who conducts this task. Yet, the malingering of mental health problems has a range of potential impacts. For the courts, malingering presents a significant threat to their basic function by acting as a significant impediment to truth. For society, malingering wastes clinical time, leaves the potential for injustice to occur in response to criminal acts, and has a significant financial burden in unwarranted civil payments. The focus of the present review is therefore to review the issue of malingering from a legal perspective, leading to a consideration of recommendations for a clinician faced with assessing a client suspected of malingering behaviour.
U2 - 10.19164/ijmhcl.28.1233
DO - 10.19164/ijmhcl.28.1233
M3 - Article
SN - 2056-3922
VL - 28
SP - 10
EP - 53
JO - International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law
JF - International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law
ER -
