Compendium report :
Good practices to promote Voluntary Measures in Mental Health Services

This report provides a compendium of good practices to promote voluntary measures in mental health care and support. It draws from practices submitted to the DH-BIO Secretariat by delegations representing the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe (COE) as well as civil society stakeholders. The compendium fulfils the aim set out in the DH-BIO Strategic Action Plan on Human Rights and Technologies in Biomedicine 2020-2025 to:

assist member States [by developing] a compendium of good practices to promote voluntary measures in mental healthcare, both at a preventive level and in situations of crisis, by focusing on examples in member States.

The practices may directly aim to reduce, prevent, or even eliminate coercive practices in mental health settings, and others will indirectly result in similar outcomes by advancing the general aim to promote voluntary mental health care and support.

The compendium is not meant as an exhaustive list of leading practices in COE Member States. Instead, it is meant as an initial step toward compiling practices aimed at promoting voluntary mental healthcare and support, and reducing and preventing coercion in mental health settings. More generally, the materials promote compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), notwithstanding debates about coercion in mental healthcare which will be noted in Part 1(B) of the report.