On 28.09.2018, a round table on the topic “Ensuring the Right to Health Care of Legally Incapacitated Persons: Current Problems and Ways to Solve Them” was held at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Health Care, chaired by Deputy Chair of the Committee, People's Deputy I. Sysoienko, with the participation of representatives of the international foundation “Human Rights in Mental Health – Federation Global Initiative on Psychiatry”, the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the Ombudsman, the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, leading national specialists in health care and social services, and lawyers.
Various forms of care for such patients in other countries were presented, in particular the experience of the United Kingdom, Lithuania, and Israel in the medical and social care of persons with disabilities due to mental disorders at their place of residence, socialization and legal support, the role of the ombudsman institution, etc. At the same time, a documentary film about the stories of female patients of psychoneurological residential institutions in Ukraine was shown.
When compared with foreign practices of protecting the rights of legally incapacitated persons: the main difference of the practice established in Ukraine is that the determination of incapacity and responsibility for such a diagnosis is a medical concept, the exclusive competence of the doctor; lack of legal capacity may be determined in court proceedings (as incapacity is determined in Ukraine).
The absence in Ukraine of, and the need to create, medical and social standards of care for such patients were discussed.
