The necessity for continued involuntary placement must be regularly reviewed.
Involuntary placement in a mental health care institution against your will is a very severe restriction of your physical liberty. It should be applied only after careful consideration of whether it is really necessary in your individual case. Moreover, you should be held only as long as your involuntary placement corresponds to the grounds provided in the Mental Healthcare Law. Therefore, it is important to regularly control the need for your involuntary placement.
Review process in court
In Lithuania the Mental Healthcare Law guarantees that your case is going to be regularly reviewed. The first time the court allows involuntary placement, the court can approve the placement only for up to 1 month.
After that time the mental health care institution has to ask the court for an extension of your involuntary placement if it deems it is necessary. This time the court can approve your involuntary placement for up to 6 months. The procedure is repeated each time at the end of the period.
The review process is carried out according to the same procedure as was used when your involuntary placement was decided for the first time.
Time
The decision about whether the placement in a mental health care institution is still necessary has to be made speedily. It means that the court has to consider your case carefully and without unjustified delay.
Language
If you do not understand Lithuanian, the court has to provide you with a translator during the court hearing and a translation of the decision in the language you understand without delay.
Reasoned decision
The court has to examine all the facts that would speak for and against your involuntary placement. In doing this, special diligence should be exercised. The court must issue a well-reasoned decision, especially if it has decided to continue the involuntary placement.
It means that the grounds on why you are to be kept involuntarily must be very clearly explained, and especially why the placement is necessary in your case. The reasons cannot be superficial and generic. The longer you have been placed involuntarily in a mental health care institution, the more thorough and well founded the reasons to prolong your stay should be.
Review process in the institution
A psychiatrist at any given time can recommend the administration of the mental health care institution to end your involuntary placement. The administration can end involuntary placement even before the term set by a court.
What human rights violation may there be?
If the need for involuntary placement is not regularly reviewed and you are not given an opportunity to challenge the prolonged involuntary placement, it may result in a violation of the right to liberty and the security of a person.