Human rights as applied to mental health: do psychiatrists really know it all?

Human rights promotion and protection continue to remain highly relevant in psychiatric practice, so it is imperative that psychiatrists are aware of developments being made in international law.

Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Special Committee on Human Rights, Professor Piyal Sen, presents this podcast to highlight the central role of human rights in psychiatric practice. He is joined by the co-authors of Mental Health and Human Rights (2024), Professor Norman Sartorius and Professor Neeraj Gill, as well as the first permanent Human Rights Officer at the NHS, Dr Tallyn Gray to discuss the role that psychiatrists can play in upholding and advocating for the rights of their patients.

Learning objectives

By the end of this podcast, you should be able to:

• develop an awareness of universal human rights principles
• recognise how human rights principles apply to the daily practice of mental healthcare in the UK
• recognise the balance between welfare and autonomy for mental health patients
• identify how restrictive interventions, often perceived as coercive by patients, can be applied to practice in a way that is compliant with human rights
• outline the human rights issues being considered in mental health legislation in the UK and its link with United Nations’ legislation.

Availability

This podcast is available as part of a CPD eLearning subscription.