title: Patients' rights to complain in Finnish psychiatric care: an overview.
abstract: Cuts in resources for Finnish psychiatric care may jeopardize the realization of patients' rights in mental health settings. The right to complain is a basic right of all patients in Finland, and is especially important to patients treated involuntarily and also to those who have experienced coercive treatment methods during their hospitalizations. In Finland, a patient's right to complain is guaranteed by law, both in legislation and in national quality recommendations. The complaint process in Finland is very complex, and there are several ways to make a complaint that are not always familiar to patients with severe illnesses. Psychiatric patients may have cognitive impairments that make the formulation of a complaint difficult. Despite help from the patient ombudsman, unbalanced power structures in psychiatric hospitals, insufficient information and long evaluation of appeals makes the complaint process very demanding for psychiatric patients.
authors.affiliation: University of Turku, Department of Nursing Science, Turun yliopisto FI-20014, Turku, Finland. mava@utu.fi
authors.forename: Maritta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Välimäki
authors.forename: Lauri
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kuosmanen
authors.forename: Jukka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kärkkäinen
authors.forename: Diane K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Kjervik
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D003068:Coercion; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D028701:Patient Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*