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Reducing Coercion in Norway (ReCoN)

The research project ReCoN aims to increase the knowledge on coercion in Norway, focusing on cumpulsory  hospitalisations and community treatment orders (CTO).

Abot ReCoN

Norwegian health authorities want to reduce the use of compulsory mental health care for individuals with severe mental disorders. In order to achieve this goal, this project will consider possible solutions to how it can be done.

The project has five work packages: 

  1. What is the ‘problem’ with coercion? A policy analysis of competing discourses on definitions and solutions.
  2. How does coercion vary between Norwegian municipalities, and what characterises services in areas with a low and a high use of coercion?
  3. Which population characteristics predict variation in compulsion?
  4. Can an intervention at the municipal level reduce the use of coercion?
  5. What are the implications of 1-4 for how we can deliver good, ethically acceptable services, and how can this knowledge be implemented in practice?

Outcomes

Background

Compulsion is controversial, and political guidelines are not always in full accordance with the perspectives of those who have been exposed to compulsion, nor those who perform it. Referrals to compulsory mental health care usually originate from regular general practitioners, emergency clinics or other services at the municipal level, while the legal formality is established in specialist services. Consequently, we need information on services at both the municipal and specialist levels to identify where potential for reduced coercion exists.

Financing

The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

Cooperation

The project is a cooperation between the department of health service research at Akershus University Hospital (HØKH), Center for medical ethics at the University of Oslo (SME) and NAPHA.

Start - Finish

2018-2023

Published Nov. 22, 2019 9:50 AM - Last modified Feb. 8, 2023 1:48 PM

Participants

  • Tonje Lossius Husum University of Oslo
  • Tore Hofstad University of Oslo
  • Jorun Rugkåsa
  • Olav Nyttingnes
  • Irene Wormdahl
  • Solveig Kjus
  • Solveig Osborg Ose
  • Trond Hatling
Detailed list of participants