WHO QualityRights Toolkit in Sierra Leone

 The Sierra Leone Mental Health Coalition is currently planning to secure stakeholder support to initiative the first use of the WHO QualityRights Toolkit in Sierra Leone. Please contact the Coalition for more information.

What is WHO QualityRights?

The poor quality of mental health services and extensive violations taking place within services in countries all over the world has led to the development of the WHO QualityRights Project. This project aims to unite and empower people to improve the quality of care and promote human rights in mental health facilities and social care homes.

The objectives of the project are to:

• Improve the quality of care and human rights conditions in inpatient and outpatient mental health and social facilities.
• Build capacity among people with mental health conditions, their families, and health workers to understand and promote human rights.
• Strengthen civil society and citizen action to conduct advocacy and influence decisions-making processes.
• Reform national policies and legislation in line with best practice, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international human rights standards.

The WHO QualityRights Toolkit: Setting quality and human rights standards in all facilities

As part of the project, WHO has developed the WHO QualityRights Toolkit to Assess and Improve Quality and Human Rights in Mental Health and Social Care Facilities.

• The Toolkit uses the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as a framework for providing countries with information on human rights standards that need to be respected, protected, and fulfilled in mental health and social care facilities
• It was developed with inputs from international experts, including people with psychosocial disabilities and their organizations

The Toolkit provides practical information and guidance on:

• The quality standards that need to be met in mental health care, in line with human rights principles
• How to prepare for an assessment of services, including the establishment of multi-disciplinary assessment committees
• How to conduct a comprehensive assessment of services
• How to report findings and make appropriate recommendations to improve quality of care, services standards, and human rights in mental health and social care services

For more information on the Toolkit, go to the WHO website on the Toolkit.