MHE Committee on Mental Health and Human Rights

At the MHE board meeting of 20 November 2004 it was decided to formally set up, in the framework of the "Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination" (2001-2006), a MHE Committee on Human Rights and Mental Health.

Objectives

The Committee aims at reacting on various documents relating to human rights issues concerning people with mental health problems, assessing the human rights situation of people with mental health problems on request of member associations, formulating position papers on certain matters that MHE wishes to bring to the attention of policy makers and other stakeholders, as well as supporting and liaising with other European NGOs active in the field of human rights (the European Disability Forum - EDF, the Social Platform, etc.).

Work of the Committee

So far, it has worked on documents such as the Council of Europe Recommendation - Rec. (2004)10 of the Committee of ministers to member states - concerning the protection of the human rights and dignity of persons with mental disorder, the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities or the European Commission Green Paper on Mental Health.
It has consulted MHE's member organisations on the issue of compulsory treatment, in collaboration with MIND (the National Association for Mental Health - UK).

It has conducted a survey on the allocation of a personal budget to people with mental health problems (i.e. a certain amount of money that they can use for paying people and services to assist them in their daily life, for example in going shopping or accompanying them on public transport to psychotherapeutic sessions, etc...), contacting both the National Disability Councils in the various EU Member States and MHE members.

In March 2007, MHE published the  final results of the survey  on the allocation of a personal budget to people with mental health problems showing that, contrary to people with other kinds of disabilities, people with mental health problems continue to have no eligibility to certain types of financial support.

The survey was designed to determine whether people with mental health problems benefit from the 'personal budget' that is allocated to people with disability and older people in some European countries. The term 'personal budget' includes a variety of approaches which directly fund disabled and older people to organise their own care, for example by hiring some support personnel. The central idea behind the personal budget concept is to place the person who is supported, or given services, at the centre of the process and to give them the power to decide the nature of their own support.
The survey made clear that there is still a long way to go in this respect, even if the process is moving forward and new developments are expected in some EU Member States.  

In 2007-2008, the Committee has been particularly involved in the events and activities of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and the Council of Europe (CoE).

In 2009, the Committee met once in Brussels and the members decided to take forward the work undertaken in 2008 particularly with a focus on the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. The Committee will launch a survey on the situation of seclusion and restraints and send a questionnaire to MHE members in a large range of EU countries in order to map the good/"bad" practices in this field.

Composition

Chair : Malgorzata Kmita, MHE Past President

Coordinator: Roselyne Bourgon, MHE Human Rights Officer

Tomas Barnabas, MHE Board member, Hungary

Claude Deutsch, Advocacy France

Martine Dutoit, MHE Board member, Director Advocacy France

Kristjian Grdjan, MHE member, The Shine, Croatia

John Henderson, MHE Senior Policy Advisor, UK

Vincente Ibanez Rojo, MHE Board Member, Spain

Peter Kinderman, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Head of School of Population, Community and Behavioural Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK

Nace Kovac, MHE President, Director Slovenian Association for Mental Health  (SENT)

Mary Nettle, ENUSP Chair, UK

Erik Olsen, ENUSP Board member, Denmark

Marita Ruohonen, MHE Board member, Finnish Association for Mental Health, Finland

Mary Van Dievel, MHE Director

Josée Van Remoortel, MHE Senior Policy Adviser

Committee documents

(work in progress)

Final results of the MHE survey on the allocation of a personal budget to people with mental health problems            

UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Contact person

Roselyne Bourgon

MHE Human Rights Officer,
Coordinator MHE Committee on Mental Health and Human Rights
Email roselyne.bourgon@mhe-sme.org
Tel +32 2 280 04 68
Fax +32 2 280 16 04