Human rights guide launched to protect mental health patients

The Mental Welfare Commission have launched a new guide aimed at ensuring mental health patients in Scotland have their human rights respected at key points in their treatment.

The guide – called Rights in Mind – is a practical document that lists people’s rights from when they are first admitted to hospital right through to when they are being treated in the community.

It was launched at an event in Edinburgh yesterday by Maureen Watt, minister for mental health, with health care staff, patients and families in attendance. The guide was developed after feedback showed that voluntary patients were sometimes unaware of whether or not they could leave a ward, or whether or not they could refuse treatment.

Gareth Jones spoke of the time he spent on the psychiatric ward after being hospitalised in 2008 for three months, after he was given a diagnosis of first-episode psychosis.

The 29-year-old had just completed his second year studying geography at St Andrews University and was at a summer camp in France when he started hearing voices and became paranoid. He was rushed back home after his parents came to collect him from Bristol Airport and taken to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

He said: “I feel it could be explained better if you’re voluntary or involuntary, when

0 Gareth Jones: ‘I was unaware of my rights while in hospital’ you’re on the ward and also the difference between the two things – what they entail and what the difference in your rights are, regarding things like taking medication and passes that enable you to leave the ward when you want.

“I wasn’t told if I could leave, would I have to take medication and I kept being told that I would have to take medication and at point’s I tried to refuse it but I wasn’t allowed.”

Patients who are detained in hospital have an additional set of rights – such as the right to be told how long they are detained for, and whether they can appeal against their detention.

Kate Fearnley, executive director of the Mental Welfare Commission, said: “Being admitted to hospital for mental illness can be frightening or confusing, particularly for new patients. People who have gone through that experience told us it would have helped if their rights had been explained.

“Hospital staff have told us that patients are less anxious when their rights are explained on admission.”