Dr. Fiona Morrissey:

I agree with those comments. There are pockets of best practice all over the world that we can bring together. A manual has recently been compiled of examples of good practices at both European and international level. That is a manual we could look at. The WHO has published guidance in the area advocating a move towards human rights-based approach to mental health services. There is the good practice manual and examples like the personal ombudsman scheme in Sweden. There are independent advocacy examples all over the world. As Dr. Gijbels has said, there are medication-free wards in Norway and in Trieste they have made an initial move to a community treatment-based approach. In the United States there are examples of good practice.

We could bring all those together into our system and we are ready with the capacity legislation moving to a model of best practice that other countries are looking to with respect to supported decision-making. Why can we not move towards something like that in mental health? We have already done it in the capacity area so why should mental health be different from capacity law? Why can we not move towards the same model? We could bring together everything we have spoken about today. There is no one country I would look to but I would certainly look to all those examples of best practice, along with the manual and WHO guidance. It is important that these are led by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.