Decision-Making Rights of Patients with Limited Capabilities in Healthcare and Mental Healthcare in Estonia, Latvia And Lithuania.

The paper analyses and compares the available legal frameworks that protect the autonomy and ensure decision-making rights in physical and mental healthcare for persons with mental disabilities in three Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The decision-making rights of persons with mental and psychosocial disabilities are examined in depth, with respect to the principles outlined in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The research shows that none of the three Baltic States provide an adequate framework to enable every person with mental health difficulties the ability to exercise autonomous decision-making in healthcare and receive support when needed. There is an urgent need to reform healthcare legislation in all Baltic countries to ensure a paradigm shift towards a human rights-based approach that limits substituted decision-making and enables supported decision-making in healthcare.