Croatia

QualityRights – Croatia

Building on the work undertaken as part of the  WHO EURO project on adults with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities living in institutions in the European Region, Croatia has accomplished a number of critical milestones in its QualityRights activities including:

  • QualityRights assessments of services and the development of service transformation/improvement plans in three facilities – Popovača Psychiatric Hospital, Zagreb Adult Home and Stančić Rehabilitation Centerusing – the WHO QualityRights materials and tools for assessing and improving/transforming services
  • Training workshops on mental health, disability human rights and recovery in the three facilities using the WHO QualityRights training materials (70 staff have been trained to date)
  • Leaflets have been developed and disseminated in each of the facilities, providing key information for people using the services on their rights and other critical issues. 

A focus on ending seclusion & restraint

The main focus of Croatia’s draft National Mental Health Strategy is on directing services towards a human rights and recovery approach, on closing down institutions and developing community based services.  A critical part of these efforts has been to build capacity within services to end coercive practices and introduce strategies to promote care and support in line with people’s will and preferences. 

In February 2019 a workshop was therefore conducted  on “Strategies for combating segregation, exclusion and restraint” at the Clinic for Psychiatry, Vrapče. The workshops was coordinated by the World Health Organization, the Vrapče Psychiatric Clinic, the Croatian Society for Clinical Psychiatry and the Croatian Institute of Public Health. The training drew on the WHO QualityRights specialized training module on strategies to end seclusion and restraint. 

Next steps

  • Introduce all QualityRights training and guidance materials and tools into all services and institutions in the country
  • Make the QualityRights materials and tools a mandatory part of the educational curriculum for psychiatrists.

QualityRights training workshops

Report of the QualityRights training conducted at the Neuropsychiatric hospital Ivan Barbot in Popovaca (6 May 2019).