Mental health, human rights, and legal capacity

Abstract

In September, 2021, our edited volume Mental Health, Human Rights and Legal Capacity was published. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to engage with evolving debates related to legal capacity in the field of mental health care, documenting perspectives from legal scholars, practitioners, policy makers, advocates, and people with lived experience of mental health conditions from diverse regions worldwide. The volume is intended to stimulate a conversation. Its objective is to document good practices while also recognising that there remain considerable barriers to the implementation of non-coercive models of mental health support, as required by the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Ultimately, our aim is to illustrate that ending coercion in mental health care is both necessary and possible, and that supported decision making in community-based mental health settings is the way of the future.