"On
October 10, the international community marks World Mental Health Day. This is
an opportunity to once again remind the society about the importance of mental
health, uniting efforts towards identifying and resolving the challenges in the
field.
People
with mental health issues are full members of our society, they have all the
rights that everyone else, meanwhile existing public and social perceptions and
discriminatory attitudes towards them make them more vulnerable.
People
with mental health issues often are also vulnerable in terms of independetly
exercising and protecting their rights, and as a result are excluded from
various spheres of public relations and life, as well as from decision-making
concerning them.
In
this regard, there are various systemic issues in our country, the main one of
which continues to be the inefficient use of community-based services in the
field of mental health care and service in Armenia.
The
lack of comprehensive approach to the solution of the existing systemic
problems in the field of mental health care is concerning. The institution of
incapacity needs to be transformed: strategic documents related to the mentioned
issue are needed, which will allow to resolve the identified issues within the
framework of a unified policy and to exercise proper control over the sector.
It is
necessary to emphasize that in order to identify the existing problems and
develop appropriate mechanisms for solving them, the representatives of the
Department for Prevention of Torture and Ill-Treatment of the Defender's Office
regularly make unannounced visits to various mental health centers. The
identified issues are being summarized and their solutions are being presented
to the competent state bodies. In addition, all problems are also being
included in the Annual Report of the Human Rights Defender as a National
Preventive Mechanism.
Each
of us, through our daily endeavors, bears the responsibility to contribute to
the creation of an environment wherein the realization of rights for
individuals with mental health issues is guaranteed’’.
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