Assessing and managing mental health issues in minors in the emergency department (ED) can be different from the management of adults. This may cause confusion to newly recruited staff in an ED. This paper aims to give a broad overview of some of the Commonwealth-based legal concepts which apply to minors with reference to basic medical standards such as good medical practice. Practice points are emphasised that apply to the management of minors which applies to many jurisdictions. The aim is to give personnel commencing in ED a simplified but comprehensive overview. For out-of-hours a template and aide memoire, up to date in early 2015, is given on how to clarify and streamline reflection on client management, disposition and reduce potential confusion about the diverse legal frameworks that pertain to mental health care of minors.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.