People with mental health conditions face a number of challenges when it comes to mental health reform in the WHO European Region due to entrenched stigmas and a fixed mindset. People are now receiving and providing mental health support in more and more countries because of changes at the grassroots level, writes WHO.
One of these countries is Estonia. In 2020, Estonia began transforming its mental health and social care services using the WHO QualityRights toolkit. As of today, the Estonian National Social Insurance Board (ENSIB) has assessed over 30 facilities, ranging from assisted living facilities to residential care homes for people with severe psychosocial and intellectual disabilities.
“When we’re talking about transforming services, we’re talking about transforming relationships,” says Cláudia Braga, a WHO QualityRights trainer with over a decade of experience in service transformation in her home country of Brazil. “You need to consider people with a psychosocial disability as citizens, and you want to promote services that are based on their right to freedom.”