FREDA: a human rights-based approach to clinical practice

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by Dr Martin Curtice, Dr Richard Symonds and Dr Tim Exworthy

Last reviewed: April 2019

The concept of a human rights-based approach to clinical practice is relatively new. The Department of Health (2008b) has enunciated that:

‘a human rights based approach is one where the realisation of human rights principles is a central aim in policy and planning, where staff and patients are empowered and involved in achieving these, where accountability is clear and the most vulnerable groups are prioritised.’

There are five core values that underpin the approach:

Fairness
Respect
Equality
Dignity
Autonomy.

This module focuses on these core values, illustrating their diverse use in the clinical setting.

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If you like this module, you may also be interested in:

Human rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 – implications for psychiatrists by Dr Martin Curtice and Dr Richard Symonds

Advance decisions in psychiatry by Dr Lisa Williams and Dr John Rigby)

Ethical and legal challenges within children's mental health care: Part 1 and Part 2 by Dr Moli Paul

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In the first module in this series, Human rights and the Human Rights Act 1998: implications for psychiatrists, we looked at issues and principles from the HRA 1998 and how these can be used in daily clinical practice.

This module is based upon a paper accepted by the Psychiatric Bulletin entitled ‘FREDA: principles for a human rights-based approach to healthcare’ (Curtice & Exworthy, 2009).

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