Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and the Improvement of Mental Health Care

Application These Principles shall be applied without discrimination of any kind such as on grounds of disability, race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, legal or social status, age, property or birth. Definitions In these Principles: "Counsel" means a legal or other qualified representative; "Independent authority" means a competent and independent authority prescribed by domestic law; "Mental health care" includes analysis and diagnosis of a person's mental condition, and treatment, care and rehabilitation for a mental illness or suspected mental illness; "Mental health facility'' means any establishment, or any unit of an establishment, which as its primary function provides mental health care; "Mental health practitioner'' means a medical doctor, clinical psychologist, nurse, social worker or other appropriately trained and qualified person with specific skills relevant to mental health care; "Patient" means a person receiving mental health care and includes all persons who are admitted to a mental health facility; "Personal representative" means a person charged by law with the duty of representing a patient's interests in any specified respect or of exercising specified rights on the patient's