Dr. Norella Broderick:

I will come back briefly on some of the examples that my colleagues had brought up and which the committee were concerned about. In admitting people who are very unwell who are presenting, for example, with extreme social embarrassment, or the person who is sitting at home very depressed and developing an ulcer, they are not being admitted for the ulcer or for the social embarrassment, it is that those are signs of the level of illness they have reached. They are that unwell. Those are the kinds of signs we are using to judge the level of their illness. This is why we give those examples. It explains how we can see they have become so unwell. I hope this helps and makes sense.

On the initial question, if I am not mistaken I believe that the Senator is looking for the correct level at which to pitch the admission standard. We are advocating that the current threshold for admission be retained. As Dr. Martin said earlier, the vast majority of patients who are admitted under the threshold outlined in the current Act, will lack capacity. At the same time, it still allows for admission for such cases as we have discussed, for those who do not reach the new threshold of immediate harm but who may be at extreme risk of deteriorating, without that harm part.