At present, the role of healthcare professionals has shifted from being mere controllers of mentally ill patients to becoming an increasingly active part of their treatment.   In Spain, institutionalization facilitated a paternalistic culture. Psychiatric reform, by integrating psychiatry into general healthcare and establishing community healthcare action directives, has created a new type of relationship between patient and professional. In psychiatric practice it is necessary to identify problems that may entail an ethical dilemma and guarantee the safeguarding of people’s fundamental rights, ethical principles that often class in daily practice in cases of admittance against the will of the patient, be it civil or penal. Patients are morally autonomous beings, with the capacity to make their own decisions, and these decisions should be respected, given that the patient should be allowed and encouraged to participate in the decision-making process to the greatest extent possible. Current legislation on types of admissions, as well as their ethical consequences, has been reviewed.