Public Defender’s Statement on World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day is marked on October 10 every year. The purpose of this day is to raise public awareness of mental health and to unite the efforts of various actors around the world, including governments, civil societies and individuals to protect the right to mental health.
"It is Time to Prioritize Mental Health in the Workplace" has been chosen as this year's theme[1], with special focus on the vital link between mental health and work.
In the modern world, with the increasing rate of mental health problems, it is of utmost importance to reduce the causative factors as much as possible and to implement measures aimed at prevention.
Unhealthy work environments, including stigma, discrimination, harassment and other inappropriate working conditions, pose a significant risk to a person's mental health and quality of life.
Systemic problems, which remain unsolved for years in Georgia, do not provide an opportunity to improve the rights situation of people with mental health problems.
The overcrowding of inpatient psychiatric services remains a serious problem, which is directly related to the shortage of beds and lack of modern community-based services. It is impossible not to mention the severe therapeutic, infrastructural and sanitary-hygienic conditions in most of these institutions, which do not correspond to national or international standards and do not provide conditions for decent treatment of patients. Community-based outpatient psychiatric services are unevenly distributed geographically and cannot fully cover all persons with the relevant needs.
People with mental problems are most often the target of stigma, unequal treatment and hate speech, which makes it difficult for them to fully integrate into society.
Realization of the right to work is a challenge for persons with disabilities, as well as promotion of their competitiveness and employment in the open labour market. No rehabilitation programmes have been developed in Georgia, which would contribute to the resocialization, employment and social integration of persons with mental health problems. Practical implementation of the capacity reform does not comply with the requirements of Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In some cases, legislation still allows for blanket employment bans for people receiving support.
In parallel with the existing challenges, measures aimed at the prevention of mental health problems need to be strengthened and effectively implemented in practice.
The Public Defender calls on the responsible state agencies to strengthen measures in the field of mental health in order to eliminate systemic problems that have not been resolved for years and to take effective steps to prevent mental health problems in various directions, especially in places of employment. For the achievement of this goal, the Public Defender believes that the State must make more efforts to raise public awareness of mental health and reduce stigma, and with the involvement of people with mental health problems, actively work with employers at the places of employment. In addition, the State should prevent practices and regulations that contribute to the further deepening of existing stigma and stereotypical attitudes towards persons with mental health problems.
