Informed Consent

This Short Guide is designed to help people who are seeking or undergoing treatment for mental health problems, and those close to them, understand the importance of informed consent to treatment. It aims to give you the knowledge and confidence to take an active part in decisions about how to manage your own mental health.

This guide is mainly for adults over 18 who are not under a legal order that requires them to stay in hospital or to receive treatment. If you are a young person, or an adult who is in hospital or under a guardianship or compulsory treatment order, you can, and should, still take an active role in decision-making. However, the laws on this vary between countries.

The use of coercion in crisis situations or as a preventative measure is deeply problematic1 and is currently being hotly debated across Europe2. While the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) sets very high standards, calling for all involuntary treatment and coercion in mental health care to end. We recognise that, at present, no European country fully meets these standards. This guide has been created with that reality in mind.

This guide is the seventh instalment of Mental Health Europe’s series of short guides. Previous publications covered the topics of psychiatric diagnosis, personal recovery in mental health, psychiatric drugs, ending coercion and restraint in mental health services, young people’s mental health and intentional peer support in mental health services.

The short guide is also available in several other languages: