Malingered mental health: Legal review and clinical challenges in English and Welsh law

Beazley, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8821-1213 and Emmett, Charlotte (2022) Malingered mental health: Legal review and clinical challenges in English and Welsh law. International Journal of Mental Health and Capacity Law, 28. pp. 1-75. ISSN 2056-3922

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Abstract

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.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: law,psychiatry and mental health,clinical psychology,sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3308
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 06 May 2022 03:55
Last Modified: 17 Oct 2022 06:11
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/84873
DOI: 10.19164/ijmhcl.28.1233

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