ABSTRACT
This chapter endeavours to generate a dialogue regarding the essential features of insight that are relevant to decision-making bodies. It also examines recent scholarship from several disciplines and jurisdictions to reveal the diversity of perspectives by the many researchers who are concerned with the care of people who purportedly lack self-awareness about their distressing mental conditions. The impact of ambiguous discharge criteria has generated research regarding the decision-making process in England, New Zealand and Australia. Research has been published on factors which mental health review bodies consider when determining whether to discharge detained patients in England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and also Sweden. The chapter cites cases from several additional jurisdictions that reference insight and suggests that the concept may have broad implications for discharge. Patient-oriented approaches may have beneficial implications for review bodies who struggle to balance safe provision for distressed patients with patients' legal rights to discharge.
