About WHO QualityRights

Promoting quality, human rights & recovery in mental health

The care available in mental health services around the world is not only of poor quality but in many instances violates human rights and hinders recovery.

Training of staff is minimal and outdated, and the level of knowledge and understanding of the rights of people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities is very poor. People are often locked away in small, prison-like cells with no human contact or chained to their beds, unable to move. Inhuman and degrading treatment is common, and people in mental health services are often stripped of their dignity and treated with contempt. Violations are not restricted to inpatient and residential services; many people seeking care from outpatient and community care services are disempowered and also experience extensive restrictions to their basic human rights.

In the wider community, people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities are denied many basic rights that most people take for granted. For example, they are denied opportunities to live where they choose, marry, have families, attend school and seek employment. There is a commonly held, yet false, assumption that they lack the capacity to assume responsibility, manage their affairs and make decisions about their lives. These misconceptions contribute to their ongoing marginalization, disenfranchisement and invisibility within communities.

A new paradigm is required, in which services promote recovery and emphasize the key elements of autonomy and participation of people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities in all aspects of their healthcare and private lives.

WHO QualityRights Initiative

In response, WHO has created the QualityRights Initiative, a new project to unite and empower people to improve the quality of care in mental health and related services and to promote the rights of people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities. This initiative works at the ground level to directly change attitudes and practices, as well as through policy to create sustainable change.

What are the objectives?

  1. Build capacity to understand and promote human rights, recovery and independent living in the community.
  2. Create community based and recovery oriented services in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
  3. Improve the quality and human rights conditions in inpatient and outpatient mental health and related services.
  4. Develop a civil society movement to conduct advocacy and influence policy-making.
  5. Reform national policies and legislation in line with best practice, the CRPD and other international human rights standards.

What actions are taken?

Training on human rights and recovery is provided to people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, families, care partners and other supporters, as well as health and other professionals.

Support is provided to create community based and recovery oriented services, including peer support.

Visiting committees with a range of expertise and experience, including people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, are established and trained to carry out QualityRights assessments of mental health and related services.

Improvement plans based on the QualityRights assessment are implemented to improve quality of care and respect for human rights in services. In institutional settings, improvement plans will support the re-orientation of care towards a community based model of service provision.

Technical support is provided to create and strengthen associations and organizations in order to undertake advocacy, conduct campaigns and participate in and influence decision-making processes.

Policy and legislation in countries is reformed, on the basis of the assessments of services, to promote and protect human rights in line with the CRPD and other international human rights standards and to encourage the development of community services.

WHO QualityRights Flyer available for download:

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