MyTherapy Discussion Forums - UN Declaration of the Rights of the Mentally Ill

Š1995-2016 Phillip W. Long, M.D.

Schizophrenia Community

Nickname:	Password:
Save Password

All Forums

Schizophrenia: General Topics

Our Code Of Ethics

UN Declaration of the Rights of the Mentally Ill

New Topic

Reply to Topic

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Page: of 43

Administrator
Administrator

14915 Posts
Gratitude: 577
Very caring Very wise I agree

Posted - 11/05/2007 : 16:29:20

Dear Members,

Our member, Guru, has brought this excellent proclamation to our attention. It is titled: "Principles for the protection of persons with mental illness and the improvement of mental health care":

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/68.htm

Phil Long M.D.
Administrator

hercules21
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)

5726 Posts
Gratitude: 435
Very caring Very wise Very honest

Posted - 05/31/2009 : 22:49:07

"Role of community and culture

1. Every patient shall have the right to be treated and cared for, as far as possible, in the community in which he or she lives.

2. Where treatment takes place in a mental health facility, a patient shall have the right, whenever possible, to be treated near his or her home or the home of his or her relatives or friends and shall have the right to return to the community as soon as possible.

3. Every patient shall have the right to treatment suited to his or her cultural background."

For the most part I see a real effort from the hospitals I have been in to take these principles to heart. I am always impressed when someone manages to come out with statement of rights as it must take a lot of work to get alignment to it.
I am also pleased to see that unlike the Canadian Charter of rights and freedoms there is no caveat that states that the rights can be overriden by other laws. There is just a list of rights. Hats off. I found the rights listed concerning involuntary admission interesting. It said "That, in the case of a person whose mental illness is severe and whose judgement is impaired, failure to admit or retain that person is likely to lead to a serious deterioration in his or her condition " This is basically the reason that they used to involuntarily admit me. I wasn't a danger just that my condition would deteriorate. So I didn't know about that reasoning.

sopater
Amazing Member (1000+ posts)

1005 Posts
Gratitude: 68

Posted - 01/01/2010 : 20:08:56

It said "That, in the case of a person whose mental illness is severe and whose judgement is impaired, failure to admit or retain that person is likely to lead to a serious deterioration in his or her condition " This is basically the reason that they used to involuntarily admit me. I wasn't a danger just that my condition would deteriorate. So I didn't know about that reasoning.

^^Interesting! Good post.