Psychiatric Advance Directive (PAD)
What is a Psychiatric Advance Directive (PAD)?
- A Psychiatric Advance Directive (PAD) is a protection for patients that helps a patient be in control of their treatment.
For additional PADs Resources, please click here.
- A psychiatric advance directive (PAD) is a legal document that documents a person’s preferences for future mental health treatment, and allows appointment of a health proxy to interpret those preferences during a crisis.
- PADs may be drafted when a person is well enough to consider preferences for future mental health treatment.
- PADs are used when a person becomes unable to make decisions during a mental health crisis.
- Although anyone may draft such a directive without using an attorney or notary, they are especially helpful when a student has a known history of being unable to make good decisions during exacerbations of severe illness such as Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia, or Anorexia Nervosa. 25 states, including Illinois have online forms to use, and the remaining states allow individuals to write up a PAD using existing medical advance directive documents.