Switzerland – officially the Swiss Confederation – is a federal republic situated in central Europe. It covers an area of 41 287 km2 and has a population of just over 7 600 000. Switzerland consists of 26 federated states, of which 20 are called cantons and 6 are called half-cantons. German, French and Italian are Switzerland's major and official languages.

Switzerland has the second highest per capita level of healthcare spending as a proportion of gross domestic product (11.3%). Although there are no exact data available, based on international comparisons, one may assume that at least 10–12% of total healthcare costs are attributable to mental health problems. A characteristic of Swiss society and therefore of Swiss psychiatry is the federal and liberal tradition. Although there is hardly any central state coordination of mental health policy, there is to some degree a homogeneous level of care services throughout the whole country. The cohabitation of the public and private sectors reflects the liberal tradition. Swiss modern psychiatry goes back to the second half of the 19th century, when the first psychiatric hospitals and chairs and a professional association of psychiatrists were founded.

Mental health policy and legislation

On a political level, there is no national mental health policy, common strategy or binding principles to ensure the uniform national delivery of psychiatric care. The national strategy for mental health, developed in 2004 by the Federal Department for Health, is actually only a guide to help the cantons and the federal government design concrete projects.

Even with respect to involuntary admission, there is no uniform legal framework at a national level, but only basic federal legislation (article 397 of the Code of Civil Law), with corresponding supplementary laws on preventive custody at the cantonal level. With respect to compulsory treatment there is only a guideline entitled Compulsory Measures in Medicine of the Swiss Academy for Medical Sciences. Further legal documents relevant to psychiatry are, at the national level, those regarding the right of self-determination, bodily injury and a duty to take care, as well as, at the cantonal level, health laws and patient decrees. There are several decisions of the Federal Tribunal determining the duty to obtain informed consent.