MHRights - Programa Integrado para a promoção dos direitos humanos das pessoas com doença mental (MHRights - Integrated Programme for the promotion of human rights of people with mental illness)

About this project

<p>The project aims to produce and disseminate up-to-date knowledge on mental health and human rights in Portugal, raise awareness towards changing attitudes about people with mental illness, train health and social sector professionals, strengthen collaboration between organisations involved in the defence of the rights of people with mental illness and contribute to improving mental health laws and policies.</p>

Bilateral cooperation results

Partnership with Norwegian partner entities contributed to a better understanding of human rights issues in mental health care provided in Portuguese prisons. This was because Prof. Nora Sveaass had participated in European audits of our prison services and was particularly committed to finding a solution to the identified problems. In turn, the presentations on compulsory community hospitalization by Prof. Jorun Rugkhasa, one of the leading researchers in this field worldwide, provided our officials with new research data with important implications for the design of mental health legislative measures related to compulsory hospitalization. It can thus be said that the partnership with the Norwegian entities significantly contributed to clarifying some important human rights issues related to the provision of psychiatric treatments in prisons and compulsory hospitalization. Another highly relevant outcome was the collaboration initiated between the promoter and the service led by Prof. Jorun Rugkhasa at Akershus University Hospital. Thanks to this collaboration, LIGMH is now part of the network created through the EU Cost Action Fostren, with Prof. JM Caldas de Almeida as its Vice-Chair. The ties created through the project led to close collaboration between Prof. Jorun Rugkhasa's service and the LIGMH team in developing a new project aimed at collecting European data on the influence of legislative factors in reducing coercion in mental health services. It is also expected that a young researcher from LIGMH will soon undertake a scientific internship at Akershus University Hospital.

Project partners

• University of Oslo Donor project partner· Norway