Expert opinions on improving coercion data collection across Europe: a concept mapping study.

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Research
• Public Health Policy
• Human Rights in Healthcare

Background:

• Coercion is prevalent in mental health care, impacting patient rights.
• Standardized data is needed to monitor coercion reduction efforts.
• Few countries maintain accessible registries for coercion data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To gather expert opinions on feasible strategies for a European coercion data collection system.
• To identify methods for promoting, developing, and implementing integrated coercion data collection.
• To establish national and international benchmarks for coercion reduction.

Main Methods:

• Concept mapping methodology involving 59 experts from 27 European countries.
• Experts generated, sorted, and rated strategies for relevance and feasibility.
• Participants were members of the EU-COST-Action FOSTREN initiative.

Main Results:

• 41 strategies were organized into seven clusters within two higher-order domains.
• Key strategies included "Collection of reliable data," "Implementation of nationwide register," and "Equal understanding of different coercive measures."
• Relevance was generally rated higher than feasibility; no significant differences were found between country groups.

Conclusions:

• Collecting reliable data and establishing nationwide registers are highly relevant strategies.
• Experts found a shared European database and legislative unification to be less feasible.
• Consensus exists on strategies for international benchmarking of mental health coercion.