About the Open Society Mental Health Initiative
The Open Society Public Health Program’s Mental Health Initiative aims to ensure that people with mental disabilities (mental health problems and/or intellectual disabilities) are able to live as equal citizens in the community and to participate in society with full respect for their human rights. The Mental Health Initiative focuses on ending the unjustified and inappropriate institutionalization of people with mental disabilities by advocating for the closure of institutions and the development of community-based alternatives. The initiative works in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (read more about the history of mental health policies in this region).
The Mental Health Initiative’s key goals are:
- Capacity-Building: promoting the capacity of people with mental disabilities and the organizations that represent them to participate meaningfully in policy and service development.
- Promoting Access to Education: supporting policy reform in education and provision of inclusive educational services.
- Advocating for Government Commitment: advocating for the creation of financing mechanisms that support inclusive policies.
- Raising Public Awareness: challenging the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental disabilities by providing information and resources on mental disability and human rights issues.
For over a decade, the Mental Health Initiative has provided sustained and strategic financial and technical support for the development of community-based alternatives to institutionalization in the region. The initiative promotes the principle of “independent living” for people with mental disabilities. Choice, dignity, freedom, and control are at the core of independent living. People with disabilities should have the same freedom to choose as every other citizen; they should be supported in their choices; and they should have opportunities to participate in the everyday activities that people without disabilities take for granted.
