Every nine minutes one person in the EU is trying to commit suicide. The suicide rate exceeds even the rate of casualties in car accidents. The European Commission responded to the growing mental health problem in 2005 with the Green Paper, laying out the mental health strategy for the EU member states. It says among others that ”non-respect for the human rights and the dignity of mentally ill and disabled people challenges core European values”. In Poland we still struggle with that issue. It is confirmed by both the NIK audit results and the Ombudsman’s reports. There is a hope to improve the situation, though.
In the past few years, NIK devoted three large nationwide audits to psychiatric treatment (in 1997, 2007 and 2011). Also, NIK inspectors - as part of the yearly budget audit - monitor the appointment of commissioners for psychiatric patients’ rights. This is among other due to NIK’s efforts that the number of such appointments is increasing systematically. The authors of the amended Mental Health Protection Act assumed that the commissioners’ activity should translate into improved functioning of the rights and dignity of mentally ill people.
