Voluntary Mental Hospitalization

Regardless of the method of admission to a mental hospital, the patient in such an institution does not, as a rule, have an unqualified right to leave. I suggest, therefore, that, although involuntary mental hospitalization is indeed involuntary, so-called voluntary mental hospitalization is often actually a covert form of involuntary mental hospitalization. Typically, this is the case when a person agrees to hospitalization under the threat of commitment. A 1971 decision of the Supreme Court of Utah, in which the Court held "... that a voluntary patient at the [mental] hospital is as much 'confined' and has as little freedom as a mentally alert trusty in a jail or prison," supports this view.