MHE key activities in this field
Given that the stigma attached to mental health problems that leads to discrimination is still prevalent and wide ranging, non-discrimination activities are a crucial part of MHE's work in the field of human rights.
MHE was involved in a EU wide study on multiple discrimination. The study, 'Tackling multiple discrimination - Practices, policies and laws ' was commissioned by the European Commission and carried out by the Danish Institute for Human Rights . The main purpose was to identify effects of multiple discrimination, to analyse how the different actors involved in the fight against discrimination tackle it, to highlight good practice and prepare recommendations on how situations of multiple discrimination could best be addressed.
MHE is also concerned by the exclusion of people with mental health problems from the scope of the new EC proposal for an antidiscrimination directive. In a letter addressed to President Barroso, MHE asked the European Commission to fully address the specificities of discrimination faced by persons with mental health problems, their families and carers.
In March 2007, MHE published the final results of a MHE 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.
MHE was involved and contributed to the consultations on the Fundamental Rights Agency's (FRA) civil society cooperation. MHE stressed the importance of ensuring that organisations from the mental health field would be represented in the Human Rights Platform , i.e. the official cooperation network created to ensure a structured and fruitful dialogue and close cooperation between the FRA and all relevant civil society stakeholders.
MHE was represented at the FRA consultative meeting with civil society on the setting up of the Fundamental Rights Platform, which took place in Brussels on 10-11 December 2007. MHE has also been officially invited to become a participant of the Platform.
MHE will participate in the first meeting of the Fundamental Rights Platform, scheduled for 7-8 October 2008 in Vienna (Austria).
In preparation to this meeting, MHE responded to the FRA consultation on its draft work programme 2009 and its annual report of 2008. In its response, MHE underlined several direct threats to human rights for people with mental health problems and pleaded for the Agency to focus its attention on the human rights aspects of mental health.
MHE also works towards improving the human rights situation of people with mental health problems.
In 2006, MHE joined in with the Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) to call upon the Romanian Government and the European Commission to put a stop to the abuses and mistreatment of children in Romanian mental institutions. Reacting to the MDRI report, titled 'Hidden suffering: Romania's segregation and abuse of infants and children with disabilities ', MHE expressed its support to MDRI's conclusions and recommendations and made its own policy recommendations .
In 2007-2008, MHE was consulted and involved in the drafting process of the European Parliament Report on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union 2004-2007 . MHE sent a contribution to the rapporteur in charge of the report, MEP Giusto Catania, stressing how alarming the human rights situation of people with mental health problems is in several EU countries.
Patients' rights, involuntary treatment and forced hospitalisation are also issues of great concern to MHE.
In the frame of its 2006 Seminar, 'The EC Green Paper on Mental Health: Time for Action', MHE organised a debate around involuntary treatment in the community .
MHE also published recommendations on patients' access to information and participated in the first European Patients' Rights Day, organised on 29 March 2007 in the European Parliament (Brussels) by the Active Citizenship Network (ACN). On this occasion, the European Charter of Patients' Rights , drafted by the ACN together with civic organisations in Europe, was presented. The European Charter of Patients' Rights states 14 patients' rights that altogether aim to guarantee a "high level of human health protection" (Article 35 of the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union) and ensure the high quality of services provided by the various national health services in Europe.
The second European Patients' Rights Day took place on 18 April 2008 in Gorizia (Italy).
MHE collaborates with other European NGOs committed to the improvement of the fundamental rights and liberties of European citizens, such as the European Disability Forum and the Social Platform .