Leading mental health charities welcome our funding of Advance Choice Documents project

Read about our funding for the Advance Choice Documents project that will result in the largest implementation and study of Advance Choice Documents in Europe. 

Andy Bell, Chief Executive of the Centre for Mental Health said:

“Advance choice documents have the potential to shift the balance of power in mental health care, giving people more say in how they are treated when they are unwell, and addressing longstanding inequities in our mental health system. We welcome this new initiative to test out their use at scale across South London. It is an important opportunity to tackle the disproportionate use of coercion against people from racialised communities. While we continue to wait for a new Mental Health Act to give advance choice documents legal status, this project will help to establish them more widely in practice.”

Simon Kitchen, Chief Executive of BiPolar UK said:

“As a charity, we have made a commitment to help raise awareness about how Advance Choice Documents have the potential to help someone manage a severe episode of illness. We are proud to partner with www.advancechoice.org – a website which hosts a set of videos and other resources designed to help people understand how to set up and use Advance Choice Documents.

“We were delighted to hear about this project to roll out Advance Choice Documents because research suggests that people with a severe mental illness, such as bipolar, who use them can reduce their risk of being sectioned by 25%. This is especially important for people in minoritised ethnic communities as they experience disproportionately high rates of detention.”