Protecting Rights of People with Mental Health Distress

The Mental Health Act has been adopted by Slovenia because this field has not been legally regulated in accordance with international standards. It is obvious that the legal regulations concerning involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations before the Act did not even meet the minimum standards of legal protection of rights and personal freedoms of people with mental\ud disorders. Involuntary hospitalization procedures were arbitrary because there were no legal regulations in this field. There were practically no advocacy services available to patients in social welfare and psychiatric institutions in Slovenia. Thus, when the patients were in conflict with the institution they found themselves on their own. In such cases they often need\ud an advocate to be on their side and support them in enforcing their rights. In practice the institutions are unwilling to voluntarily let advocates work inside the institutions, while lay advocates who worked for non-governmental institutions before the new Act did not have any means to work against the institutions on equal terms. Advocates need authorization and a mandate from the government to successfully advocate patients in institutions. Only thus can independent advocacy services that will be able to efficiently support patients in institutions be established. The Act must grant jurisdictions, work duties and an area to work to the independent advocates, and above all grant financial resources to implement their services