The family of a patient whose insurance will not pay for continuing hospitalization considers transferring the patient to a public psychiatric hospital. The family expresses concern that the patient will "never get any treatment." Which reply by the nurse would be most helpful?

A) "Under the law, treatment must be provided. Hospitalization without treatment violates patients' rights."
B) "That's a justifiable concern because the right to treatment extends only to the provision of food, shelter, and safety."
C) "Much will depend on other patients, because the right to treatment for a psychotic patient takes precedence over the right to treatment of a patient who is stable."
D) "All patients in public hospitals have the right to choose both a primary therapist and a primary nurse."

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Dávið Ulfbjorn · Accepted Answer

Final Answer : A, Explanation :  The right to medical and psychiatric treatment was conferred on all patients hospitalized in public mental hospitals with the enactment of the federal Hospitalization of Mentally Ill Act in 1964. Stating that the concern is justifiable supports the family's erroneous belief. The provisions mentioned in the third and fourth options are not part of this or any other statute governing psychiatric care.

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