Mental Health Advocacy and Human Rights: Your Guide

Designed for both advocates and people who use services, this guide explains how the United Kingdom (UK)'s Human Rights Act (HRA) can be used in mental health settings to secure better treatment and care for people. Rights in the HRA particularly relevant to mental health include:

• Right to life - Example issue: placing a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) notice on your file, without your consent.
• Right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment - Example issue: malnutrition and dehydration in hospital.
• Right to liberty - Example issue: restraining you for long periods and for no good reason.
• Right to respect for private and family life - Example issue: not giving you information about your treatment or care.
• Right to be free from discrimination - Example issue: refusing to treat a patient because of their mental health.

"The guide also contains real life examples of how advocates have used human rights to secure better treatment for people with mental health problems. Often raising an issue in human rights terms, as a legal right, can help resolve problems. However, human rights are not a magic wand. Sometimes a problem cannot be resolved on a local advocacy level, and some issues are too complex or serious to be resolved in this way. The Human Rights Act in the UK offers the backup of the law, as a last resort." Flow charts, worked-through examples, and tips are provided throughout the resource.

This is a publication of the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR), a UK-wide independent human rights charity that supports people and organisations to know about human rights and put them into practice in everyday life beyond the courtrooms, translating the law into a force for positive change.

For hardcopies, please contact Helen Wildbore on hwildbore@bihr.org.uk or telephone 0207 882 5851.