Regional and International Level

During its annual conference on Reforming Global Mental Health, the FGIP regularly brings together policy makers, (mental) health professionals and civil society organisations to discuss the best approaches for ethical and human mental health systems, and to build alliances on how to best reform existing systems to that end. Throughout our history, we have organised more than a dozen symposia at Regional Congresses and World Congresses of the World Psychiatric Association to advocate for the development, reform and implementation of a modern and ethical approach to the treatment of persons with psychiatric needs.

Whenever necessary, we raise the voices of our member organisations with international and regional human rights mechanisms to hold their respective states accountable for the violation of the rights of persons with mental health challenges.

National Level

We support professional psychiatric associations from around the world in their own advocacy to ensure that their respective national mental health systems are compliant with the obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), both in theory and in practice. In the past, for example, we have co-organized over thirty seminars and conferences for the Network of Reformers in Psychiatry for participants from Central & Eastern Europe and the former USSR in The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Spain and Ukraine, and trained members of the psychiatric associations of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, Ukraine, the Association of Free Romanian Psychiatrists, St. Petersburg Psychiatric Association and the Siberian Psychiatric Association on the concept of a human-rights-based approach to mental health to empower them to initiative reform process in their respective countries. Some of these associations have even been set up with FGIP support.

Working with Policymakers

we work with policy makers in priority countries to engage in reform processes, both for the mental health profession and the health infrastructure, to ensure that victims of State repression and war, human rights defenders and activists as well as political prisoners or those who committed a crime due to mental health challenges have access to high-quality treatment that respect their human rights. We have for example successfully advocated for States to rebuild psychiatric hospitals or provide existing hospitals with the necessary equipment that allows the hospital staff to uphold the dignity of those they treat, such as in Sri Lanka, Lithuania or Ukraine.

Whenever necessary, we raise the voices of our member organisations with international and regional human rights mechanisms to hold their respective states accountable for the violation of the rights of persons with mental health challenges.

Campaigns

In everything we do, we contribute to lifting the heavy stigma surrounding persons with mental health needs and to encourage those at risk to seek help. One example is a current social media campaign in Russian, with a focus on Belarus and Kazakhstan, that we run together with our member organizations GIP Georgia or the development of a special program to combat the social isolation of persons with mental health issues as a result of COVID-19: Mind The Gap Campaign.