Locus standi of patients with mental illness in Lithuania

ENFor the patiems who experience severe mental illnesses maintaining a normal day-to-day life is a constant challenge. Following up the prescribed treatment (or even applying for one) and adapting to different and recurrent symptoms of the illness might become too complicated and lead into severe relapse. People having mental illnesses are often out of touch with reality, persistently experience delusions and hallucinations and sometimes they are so unhappy that choose to take away their own lives. [...] Despite their mental condition, mentally ill patients are still entitled to general human rights As scholars point out, "users of mental health services as well as other people have the right to express their needs, influence their treatment, and he regarded as equal participants in society." Nonetheless, in Lithuania, human rights are constantly violated in psychiatric facilities; moreover, laws regulating mental health system provide regulatory gaps and inadequacies that foster stigma of mental illness and even discrimination. Sadly, up to now, far too little attention has been paid to the protection of mentally ill patients' human rights. For these reasons mental health system of Lithuania needs to be improved by making changes in the legal foundations as well as financial management. Therefore, this study aims to draw more attention to the current situation in the mental health field in order to induce significant adjustments in this sector. The scope of this article is limited only to the patient's locus standi right in Lithuania. Sadly, so far this topic has received very little attention so there are limited data available for the analysis. Therefore, this study provides a significant opportunity to advance our knowledge about mentally ill patients' rights and review the condition of the mental health system of Lithuania.