Editing Advance healthcare directive (section)

====Legal foundations====

Psychiatric advance directives are legal documents used by persons currently enjoying legal capacity to declare their preferences and instructions for future [[mental health]] treatment, or to appoint a surrogate decision maker through Health Care [[Power of Attorney]] (HCPA), in advance of being targeted by coercive mental health laws, during which they may be stripped of legal capacity to make decisions.<ref>"Advance Directives for Mental Health Treatment" Debra S. Srebnik and John Q. La Fond Psychiatric Services, Volume 50, Number 7: 919 - 925, July 1999</ref>

In the United States, although 25 states have now passed legislation in the past decade establishing authority for PADs, there is relatively little public information available to address growing interest in these legal documents.<ref>"Law and Psychiatry: Psychiatric Advance Directives and the Treatment of Committed Patients" [[Paul S. Appelbaum]], Psychiatric Services, Volume 55, Number 7: 751 - 763, July 2004</ref> The [[Joint Commission]] on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) requires behavioral health facilities to ask patients if they have PADs.