The European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) and TENENET are pleased to announce that registrations are open for their upcoming conference, ‘Guaranteeing Choice & Control: Transforming Mental Health and Psychosocial Disability #39;

Although our understanding of mental health and psychosocial disability has been growing, many individuals continue to receive poor quality care and suffer human rights abuses within a mental health system rooted in a medicalised paradigm. This outdated perspective insists on diagnosing, treating, and curing mental health conditions without sufficiently considering the broader context or acknowledging the societal factors influencing an individual's well-being. Coercive practices, forced admissions, and compelled treatments persist as forms of restraint and seclusion, highlighting the urgent need for a transformative shift.

Our upcoming conference seeks to address these critical issues and promote a human rights-based approach to mental health and psychosocial disabilities. At the heart of this approach is the recognition and respect for individuals' right to make decisions about their own well-being. To achieve this, we need person-centred, community and recovery-based mental health services rooted in human rights principles.

Organised collaboratively by EASPD and TENENET, this conference invites active participation from individuals with lived experiences, service providers, policymakers, researchers, and various stakeholders. Together, we aim to critically review existing frameworks; key principles of human-rights, person-centred, community-oriented, and recovery-based mental health services and address challenges of practical implementation and service delivery.

Hosted in Bratislava, Slovakia on 20-21st May, the conference will:

• Dive into the foundational principles of mental health firmly rooted in a human rights-based
• Incorporate service providers' perspectives to address the challenges faced by service providers in the
• Showcase and identify practical tools and good practices that translate abstract guidelines into actionable
• Reinforce legal frameworks, funding, and supportive policies, as well as advocate for broader strategies to comprehensively integrate mental health approaches across

Find out more and register here: