• The central role and rights of family members in the care and treatment of people with mental ill health should be fully acknowledged and provided for throughout Europe.
• Family carers should be acknowledged as equal partners with professional staff and the person with mental ill health in decisions relating to the planning and delivery of treatment and care.
• State mental health care should be adequate to enable family members of people with mental ill health to make their choice without regard to any feelings of personal obligation.
• Families and individual family members have a right to choose and define the role they are willing and able to play. This must include the right not to be involved directly with their relative’s care, or to be involved in planning services, campaigning and monitoring services.
• Families should not be discriminated against or held responsible legally or financially for their family member directly affected by mental ill health.
• People with mental ill health should be cared for in an appropriate environment and provided with all necessary health and social services.
• The needs of all family members for support and understanding should be recognised and fully provided for.
• It is the human right of all people with mental ill health and their families to share as fully as they can in the opportunities, enjoyments and responsibilities of everyday living.

• To support member associations in their efforts to improve standards of treatment, care and quality of life of people with mental ill health and their family carers and friends.
• To engage in the development of family movements in countries where such movements are currently weak or do not exist.
• To involve member associations closely with the development of EUFAMI activities.
• To help member associations combine their efforts at regional and European levels and to reach out to promote the aims and objectives of families.
• To deepen EUFAMI’s influence and enhance its reputation with key international bodies, clinical associations and healthcare professionals to ensure that the concerns of family carers are always fully recognised.
• To lobby European policy makers to continue their efforts to improve mental health and social care services as a human right in each member state so that a more equitable situation will result across the continent.
• To campaign for adequate resources to be provided for services and support for people with mental ill health and their families.
• To identify examples of good practice in the field of mental illness and communicate them appropriately throughout Europe.
• To promote and, where appropriate, participate in research into the causes and management of mental ill health and its treatment.
• To engage in public awareness programmes and campaign for changes in public attitudes so as to help remove stigma and discrimination against people with mental ill health and their family carers.
• To develop and strengthen partnerships between EUFAMI and other organisations having purposes and objectives which are similar to those pursued by EUFAMI.
• In all ways to defend the rights of people with mental ill health and their families.

EUFAMI’s vision is that every person affected by mental ill health and their family members receives the understanding and support they need to participate in their community as he or she chooses, and shares in the social, economic and political rights of that community, without exclusion or discrimination.