FOSTREN is a COST-funded initiative to build a sustainable, multidisciplinary network of researchers and innovators working to understand the reduction of coercion in mental health services better. This April, the SALUS group held one of FOSTREN’s regularly scheduled working group meetings titled “The Ethics of Coercion”.

The content focused on the discussion of the complete abolition of psychiatric coercion after a keynote lecture by Prof. Dirk Richter from Bern, as well as the possibility of strengthening autonomy of affected people through a combination of supported decision-making and the assessment of the capacity to consent after a keynote lecture by Dr. Matthé Scholten from Bochum. Other topics included the views of relatives on the use of informal coercion, participatory research in the context of research on psychiatric care, and the implementation and use of psychiatric advance directives.