This month an unprecedented research on violation of patients' rights in psychiatric hospitals and care homes, implemented by mental patients themselves, has been started in Lithuania. Patients' Advocacy workgroup, acting at the Club 13 & Co., a NGO, uniting mental users and their relatives, has initiated the research. The research is expected to reveal a real situation of the rights of inpatient of psychiatric institutions, and to prevent violation of their rights.

The leader of Patients' Advocacy workgroup, the Club's member and mental user Mrs. Zina S. says that the idea to research and to evaluate status of the rights of psychiatric inpatients has arisen together with the idea of the establishment of Patients' Advocacy group. "Recently, the issue of human rights has been discussed a lot, even European Court of Human Right is used to fight for them. The rights of mental patients must be defended as any other human right" she says. According to Mrs. Zina, the Law on Mental Health Care of Lithuanian Republic (1996) clearly defines what the rights of mental patients are. "However, there is no information about any case of proceeding on violation of patients' rights in Lithuania. Thus, we expect this research will help us to discover if it is really true mental inpatients rights are not violated in psychiatric institutions", says the leader or the Workgroup.

In Western countries mental patients actively participate in various areas of mental health care: they provide health services themselves, take part in preparation of legal acts and in training mental health professionals, as well as in evaluating quality of mental health services, advocating for patients rights, etc. Mrs Zina S. says, during a year and a half while the Group is in action, more than ten patients or their relatives have appealed to the advocacy group because of various cases of violence of patients' rights at hospitals and care homes. 'The trouble is that very often patients do not even know about the presence of their rights and the Law defending them, so talking about going public or looking for help makes no sense at all", says Mrs. Danguole Survilaite, MD, chairperson of Club 13 & Co. and initiator of the Advocacy workgroup.

Patients are supposed to answer some questions concerning patients' rights to:

• voluntary hospitalization,
  
• confidentiality with regard to information concerning their health information,
  
• choose a doctor and treatment method,
  
• perform religious rites,
  
• have freedom of access to means of communications,
  
• be provided with a possibility to enjoy privacy,
• living and treatment conditions, which are described by the Law. The research group has prepared questionnaires which may also be filled in anonymously. About 50 patients have filled in the questionnaires so far.

The research on the rights of patients started in June and should be continued until the end of the year. Mrs. Zina says that the results will be evaluated in December, and only then it will be able to review the effectiveness of the Law. According to her, then it will be the time to discuss on the real situation of psychiatric inpatients. If direction of all of the psychiatric institution welcomes the research is planned to be implemented in all the hospitals and care homes of Lithuania.

Today 11 hospitals and 21 care homes numbers 7000 psychiatric inpatients. There are about 162 thousand of mental patients in Lithuania; that is about 4,6 per cent of the whole population of our country.

We invite everyone having faced violation of patients' rights to apply to Patients' Advocacy group by phone (5) 267 06 13 or by e-mail: club13andco@centras.lt.
Possible anonymously.

About Patients' Advocacy group:
Mental Patients' Advocacy group was established in autumn 2002 at the Republican Nongovernmental organization Club 13&Co. the main questions to be examined by the group:

• Compulsorily hospitalization or refusal to hospitalize;
  
• Restrictions and breaches of mental patients' rights at psychiatric hospitals;
  
• Living conditions in psycho neurological care homes;
  
• Relations with employers; restrictions in employment of mental patients;
  
• Right for adoption;
  
• Right to refuse medication;
  
• Right to inherit
  
• Right to privacy and spread of information; relationship with mass media.

The Patients' Advocacy group is sponsored by the Lithuanian Council of Disabled People and by two international foundations: Hamlet Trust and Open Lithuanian Foundation.