human rights and legislation who resource book on mental health

chapter. Nonetheless, not all users or family members will have been part of these processes
<strong>and</strong> all will need to be informed even after the law has been passed. Organizations representing
users <strong>and</strong> family members as well as advocacy organizations can also be involved in awarenessraising
programmes. In countries where user <strong>and</strong> family organizations are not well established,
or have poor financial <strong>resource</strong>s to disseminate information, mechanisms will need to be found
to disseminate the information as widely as possible (for further details, see Module on Advocacy
for Mental Health (WHO 2003b): http://www.<strong>who</strong>.int/mental_health/<strong>resource</strong>s/policy_services/en/).
Example: Using advocacy services for effective implementation in Austria
A patients’ advocacy service with broad functions has been implemented in Austria. This
service assumes the legal representation in court proceedings of patients committed to
psychiatric hospitals. The service also provides counselling <strong>and</strong> information on patients' <strong>rights</strong>
for all patients as well as for their families <strong>and</strong> friends, <strong>and</strong> for interested people in general.
Two non-profit organizations run the service <strong>and</strong> are supervised by the Austrian Federal
Ministry of Justice. The organizations are responsible for training, guiding <strong>and</strong> supervising
patients’ advocates. The services of patients’ advocates are confidential <strong>and</strong> free of charge for
all patients. All involuntary patients are automatically assigned a patients’ advocate.
(Beermann, 2000)
5.2.3 Mental health, health <strong>and</strong> other professionals
Thorough knowledge of mental health <strong>legislation</strong> by mental health, health <strong>and</strong> other
professionals is extremely important for effective implementation. It is therefore necessary to
promote special training for health <strong>and</strong> mental health professionals <strong>and</strong> staff, law-enforcement
agencies (the police <strong>and</strong> judicial system), lawyers, social workers, teachers <strong>and</strong> <strong>human</strong> <strong>resource</strong>
administrators, among others. Joint forums for training, where professionals from health <strong>and</strong>
non-health disciplines are able to interact with each other, can create a better underst<strong>and</strong>ing of
mental health <strong>and</strong> mental disorders, the <strong>human</strong> <strong>rights</strong> of persons with mental disorders <strong>and</strong> the
common language used by all <strong>who</strong> interact with persons with mental disorders. Particularly
important for the training of health <strong>and</strong> mental health professionals <strong>and</strong> staff are issues regarding
<strong>rights</strong> to treatment <strong>and</strong> care, including the correct procedures for involuntary admission <strong>and</strong>
treatment.
As carefully as <strong>legislation</strong> may be drafted, there are invariably clauses which may be ambiguous,
or where the full intent <strong>and</strong> implications are not understood. Training may enable a full exploration
of each clause of the <strong>legislation</strong> <strong>and</strong> a thorough discussion of its meaning <strong>and</strong> implications.
Example: Training for implementation of mental health <strong>legislation</strong> in South Africa
In training for the implementation of the Mental Health Care Act 2002 in South Africa, short
clauses such as “the least restrictive environment” <strong>and</strong> “in the best interests of the user”
sparked many hours of debate regarding their implication in various settings <strong>and</strong> in different
scenarios. Participants expressed the view that without the training <strong>and</strong> without the trainer
specifically concentrating on the implications of these clauses, their importance would in all
likelihood have gone unnoticed, <strong>and</strong> the reasons why they were included would thus have been
lost in implementation.
(Personal correspondence with M. Freeman, Department of Health, South Africa, 2003)
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