It was a great experience to be part of this Forum. Finally, our country became an EFPT member country this year. In addition to this, becoming the winner of the Best Junior Scientist Oral Presentation Award made me feel very inspired.
I would like to show my deepest gratitude to the Jury members – Prof Cem Atbasoglu and Prof Bedirhan Ustun for choosing my study as the best presentation and all EFPT organisers for giving me the opportunity to share the current achievements and problems of mental health services in Azerbaijan with our colleagues from different countries of Europe. My project – “Developing of Tool for Quality Assurance of Mental Health Inpatient Services in Azerbaijan” was about developing an instrument to monitor and evaluate the quality of mental health services in the context of human rights in Azerbaijan, which I defended successfully in my masters dissertation in Lisbon. Actually, I only decided to apply on the last day because I thought ”Crossing the Bridge” should include patients perspectives. While offering them services we should take into consideration patients’ human rights issues, especially during hospitalisation. It was also great to have had a chance to discuss human rights problems faced during involuntary hospitalisation within our “Involuntary intervention” working group session with colleagues from Austria, Portugal, Russia, Netherland and Croatia.
I hope we all will enjoy meeting again in the next EFPT Forums!
By Gumru Ahmadova, MD, MSc