A/HRC/39/36 providers, schools and communities to raise awareness about mental health and facilitate support for children. 17. During the interactive dialogue, representatives of Lithuania and of Autistic Minority International, Support-Fundació Tutelar Girona, Mental Health Europe, Salud Mental España and Human Rights Watch took the floor. Lithuania welcomed the consultation and called for continued efforts to be made towards a human rights-based approach in mental health. The comments and questions that followed touched on: (a) the fact that the absolute prohibition, in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, of institutionalization applied equally to autistic children and other people on the basis of “health” reasons; (b) the need to ensure that all approaches were centred on the views of people with psychosocial disabilities themselves; and (c) the fact that practices that were compliant with the Convention could precede and trigger legal reform and should be encouraged, including through the training of professionals. Echoing the comments of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, representatives of several organizations expressed opposition to, and called for the withdrawal of, the draft additional protocol to the Oviedo Convention. 18. In response, the panellists welcomed the support for the paradigm shift, acknowledged persistent barriers, including traditional psychiatric practices, and called for laws and attitudes to be changed, as well as for the eradication of detention of children on the basis of their mental health or any health condition. B. Improving human rights in mental health through system-wide strategies 19. Dr. Michelle Funk, of WHO, elaborated on the WHO QualityRights initiative to advance the human rights-based approach to mental health and the work undertaken by WHO with countries to: build capacity on human rights and mental health; transform those systems to promote quality and rights, including by supporting civil society; and support policy and legal reform that was compliant with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly in relation to legal capacity, liberty, community inclusion and the elimination of violence. She emphasized that the QualityRights tools had had a significant impact in changing attitudes, practices and service delivery — for respect of the right of the individual to make his or her own decisions, to provide people with information and choice about treatment options, and to end forced treatment, seclusion and restraint. She shared results that illustrated reductions in violence, an increased use of support instead of force, and a reorientation of services towards a recovery approach. WHO was developing a best practice guide on community services that operated without coercion, supported recovery, and promoted autonomy and inclusion. 20. Dr. Vincent Girard, of the Agence régionale de santé Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, described the “Housing First” programme, which had been operating in France for over 20 years, supporting the inclusion of persons with psychosocial disabilities. Although France had the second-highest mental health budget in Europe, human rights violations persisted: psychiatric coercion was on the rise (with a 15 per cent increase since the 2011 law reform, the objective of which was to strengthen the rights of forcibly hospitalized patients), and nearly 45,000 people with psychosocial disabilities were living in the streets, and 25,000 in prisons. He explained that the “Housing First” model did not condition access to housing on the acceptance of care or on restriction of the consumption of drugs or alcohol, that the person concerned was supported by a team, which included peer workers and was coordinated by a social worker, and that the psychiatrist was not the one in charge. He said that the intervention was effective because it focused on all aspects of an individual’s needs, not on reducing symptoms, and that the results of the programme showed savings in terms both of resource expenditure and of respect for human rights, by decreasing and preventing hospitalization. He agreed that scientific research and projects must be used to inform and reform policy in regard to the misconceptions of dangerousness and of medical necessity to “fix a disorder”, which were not supported by modern evidence. 7