- Home
- News
- Resources
- About WHO QualityRights
- Promoting person-centred & rights-based community mental health services
- Assessing and Improving Quality & Human Rights in Mental Health Services
- Training on mental health, disability, human rights, recovery & the CRPD
- Strengthening peer support groups & services
- Strengthening civil society and advocacy to promote a human rights approach to mental health
- Self-help recovery tool for mental health and well-being
- Promoting Human Rights Oriented Policy and Law
- Evaluation Tools
- Promotional Materials and Media
- Countries
- Participate
- Training
- Partners
- Contact
Czechia
QualityRights – Czechia
QualityRights activities in Czechia are implemented within the framework of the Ministry of Health-led project on deinstitutionalization of mental health care and psychiatric reform.
As the country transitions from institutions to community based services, it is nevertheless important to promote quality and human rights standards for people still receiving care in hospital contexts. With this in mind, 17 psychiatric hospitals where assessed between 2018 and 2019 using the the WHO QualityRights toolkit and methodology. A number of priority areas were identified as a result of the hospital assessments including the need to:
- Put in place individual recovery care plans
- Promote respect for people’s will and preference to treatment and support
- Find alternative strategies to seclusion and restraints,
- Provide access to educational and employment opportunities for people using services.
Transitioning from institutions to community services
Each of the 17 psychiatric hospitals has employed a Quality Manager tasked with identifying and put in place the measures to respond to these issues, drawing on the WHO QualityRights training and guidance materials.
Measures implemented include, for example, the introduction of individual recovery plans, ending overcrowding in hospital rooms, ensuring people in the service are given back their mobile phones, the strengthening of complaints mechanisms, the removal of many ‘regimented’ processes and rules (eg. around wake up and eating times, among other things), the promotion of leisure activities such as regular walks and so on.
Other key activities
- The WHO QualityRights training and guidance material have been translated into Czech ready for use in national training efforts
- QualityRights training programmes will be rolled out in each of the hospitals throughout 2020.
- Three Working Groups have been established to oversee the:
- introduction of individual recovery plans in all hospitals
- implementation of strategies to end the use of restraints nationally
- strengthening of the role of people with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities in the national mental health reform process.
- New provisions related to individual recovery plans are being introduced to the forthcoming Health Services Act (currently being amended).
- An in depth analysis on the use of seclusion and restraints in psychiatric inpatient facilities was undertaken, and, in collaboration with WHO, training workshops have been conducted in 4 psychiatric hospitals on the use of alternative strategies for de-escalation of crisis situations.
- The QualityRights assessments in Czechia have enabled the identification of critical areas for action for the new National Action Plan for Mental Health Care (to be adopted end 2019) with specified funds allocated for their implementation.
- The QualityRights assessment toolkit and methodology will also be integrated into the national system for assessing and evaluating the quality of health care.
QualityRights e-training launch & rollout
The QualityRights e-training platform has been translated into Czech and was launched on 26 November 2019 in Prague at a meeting organized by the Minister of Health.
Participants at the launch included senior officials from the National Ombudsman’s Office, the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner, the Office of the Government in the field of human rights, Ministry of Health representatives, WHO staff, and directors and representatives of selected hospitals among other guests. A press conference was held during the launch, attended by the Minister of Health, in order to bring visibility to the e-training and national rollout.
Launch press release & articles:
Ministerstvo zdravotnictví ve spolupráci s WHO zvyšuje kvalitu péče o lidi s duševním onemocněním a spouští edukační program – (Word version available here)
Jak se lépe chovat k psychiatrickým pacientům? WHO školila čtyři české nemocnice
Additional strategies for the QualityRights e-training rollout include:
- Providing access to the e-training via the Ministry of Health’s official national website for psychiatric reform www.reformapsychiatrie.cz
- Introducing the e-training at a meeting of psychiatric hospital directors in December 2019, with a view to its inclusion introduction staff training plans of the psychiatric hospitals
- The creation of a Facebook page dedicated to QualityRights e-training and related activities (December 2019).
- The appointment of a communication expert in January 2020, who will be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive social media campaign to promote the rollout and uptake of the QualityRights e-training and for liaising with the press department of the Ministry of Health
- The creation of a Facebook page dedicated to QualityRights e-training and related activities (December 2019).
- The appointment of a communication expert in January 2020, who will be responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive social media campaign to promote the rollout and uptake of the QualityRights e-training and for liaising with the press department of the Ministry of Health.
Videos
Confronting Coercion in Psychiatry in Czechia