•National Council
on Disability, January 20, 2000
•Recommendations
• . . . NCD has developed 10
core recommendations in this report. These policy recommendations should be viewed from the context
of the larger report, which
follows. These deeply held core beliefs form, however, a dynamic backdrop to highlight the human and civil rights
of people who have
experienced the mental health system, people who should be viewed as the true experts on their experiences, beliefs, and
values, which should be used as a
guiding force for changing public policy related to these issues in America.
•1. Laws that allow the use of involuntary treatments
such as forced drugging and
inpatient and outpatient commitment should be viewed as inherently suspect, because they are incompatible with the
principle of self-determination.
Public policy needs to move in the direction of a totally voluntary community-based mental health system that
safeguards human dignity and
respects individual autonomy.