It establishes key standards that need to be met in all facilities, including the need for living conditions to be safe and hygienic and the social environment to be conducive to recovery; the provision of evidence-based care for their mental and physical health condition, on the basis of free and informed consent; and reporting and halting all inhuman treatment.
“The Tool Kit has been developed with major inputs from people from civil society organizations which specialize in mental and psychosocial disabilities, as well as other mental health and human rights experts, which is why it is so comprehensive and practical,” said Michelle Funk, who led the WHO team which developed theTool Kit.
“It can be applied in low-, middle- and high-resource settings. It is unique because it can be implemented in both inpatient and outpatient facilities and allows for a comparison between mental health and general health care services,” Funk added.
Along with setting up standards, the Tool Kit provides specific guidance on how to conduct a comprehensive assessment of services, how to report findings and make appropriate recommendations to improve quality of care and human rights at the health facility and at national level. It is part of a larger WHO QualityRights project to improve the quality of mental health care and human rights conditions in mental health and social care facilities.
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