Clinical responsibility and client autonomy: Dilemmas in mental health work at the margins.

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Mental health outreach to homeless persons requires practice standards for cases in which clinical assessment and client autonomy conflict. After reviewing the principles of mental health outreach and presenting case examples, conditions and boundaries within which outreach workers negotiate the clinical responsibility/client autonomy dilemma are discussed. Guidelines to support sound clinical practice while respecting client autonomy are also discussed.