'We need to get to the heart of why people end up in distress in the first place. We need accessible and affordable supports and services. We need a commitment to providing preventative, alternative treatment options.' – Speaking From Experience member
Our vision for a reformed mental health system in Victoria is one that centres rights, supported decision-making and recovery.
Every day through our work, we see the intersection between people’s mental health and other life and legal issues.
Following the historic Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System(opens in a new window) and resulting changes to the (opens in a new window)Mental Health and Wellbeing Act(opens in a new window), further reform is needed that will deliver safe and appropriate mental health supports that are accessible, affordable and focused on rights and personal recovery.
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Rights, supported decision-making and recovery – addressing compulsory treatment
'I have had some really horrible past experiences receiving compulsory treatment, including receiving injections the treating team thought were best for me … the treating team think it is better for me to be like a plant or zombie because there are no ‘risks’ to anyone if I live in that state.' – Ali (not her real name)
We work with mental health consumers across various points in the mental health system, including where they are subject, or afraid they will be subject, to compulsory mental health treatment.
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System(opens in a new window) noted that the number of compulsory treatment orders in Victoria continues to rise despite multiple efforts to make them an option of last resort.
Through our work, we see the devastating impacts compulsory treatment(opens in a new window) has on people by removing their rights to autonomy, dignity, freedom of movement and to make their own choices.
Consumers often tell us how compulsory treatment has caused them additional trauma and harm, rather than supporting them to make their own decisions about their treatment and recovery.
There are steps that can be taken now to radically reduce the use and duration of compulsory treatment. These changes, along with ongoing system reforms, can create an environment where compulsory treatment is no longer needed and can be eliminated. Like the royal commission, we want all Victorians to be able to rely on a compassionate and responsive mental health system – and one that is centred on rights, supported decision-making and recovery.
Among our recommendations(opens in a new window), we support:
- embedding supported decision-making into the system through additional staff training, policies and procedures, and binding and enforceable advance statements of preferences
- limiting the ability to order compulsory treatment, including by narrowing the current criteria for compulsory treatment
- embedding cultural safety, including through ensuring the criteria incorporate connection to culture, Country, Community and kin as protective factors for the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing of First Nations consumers
- prohibiting rolling community treatment orders
- improving transparency and data collection, including public reporting by oversight bodies and recording of Mental Health Tribunal hearings.
These changes must be accompanied by systems reform, physical environment improvements, partnerships between lived experience experts and clinicians, cultural change and sustained resourcing to transform Victoria’s mental health system to one where, ultimately, there isn’t a need to order mental health treatment a person doesn’t agree to.
Learning from lived and living experience
We are the largest provider of legal and non-legal advocacy services to people with mental health issues in Victoria. We provide services through the work of our Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) advocates, our specialist lawyers advising consumers about and appearing at the Mental Health Tribunal and the co-designed Mental Health Legal Rights Service, delivered in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and Mental Health Legal Centre.
Our lived and living experience advisory group, Speaking from Experience, and the consumers we work with every day, inform our perspective on the transformational reforms needed to Victoria’s mental health system.
Strategies to improve our mental health system so we can ultimately eliminate compulsory treatment must be co-designed and co-produced with people with lived experience of that system.
Victorians deserve a mental health system that supports people’s choices and their recovery so they can live their best lives, as determined by them.
The reform journey
March 2019
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System begins after a public consultation to establish its Terms of Reference. It’s the first of its kind in Australia.
July 2019
Our submission(opens in a new window) to the royal commission highlights the intersection between mental health and other legal issues we deal with. In our submission and in our CEO’s appearance(opens in a new window) before the royal commission, we call for a genuine culture shift to build a new system that has rights and recovery as its foundation and works for the people that want to access it.
November 2019
Our CEO appears before a Productivity Commission inquiry(opens in a new window) into mental health in Australia, calling for a ‘cultural shift’ in the justice system towards a greater use of diversion and therapeutic options.
May 2020
We release an updated submission to the royal commission(opens in a new window), making 57 recommendations to create a better mental health system for Victorians.
July 2020
We provide evidence to the royal commission’s criminal law issues panel(opens in a new window) and recommend several changes, including expanded access to therapeutic court options, like the Assessment and Referral Court and the Drug Court.
August 2020
Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, we complete the Your story, your say project(opens in a new window), telling the stories of 34 people and their perspective and experience of the mental health system.
November 2020
The Productivity Commission publicly releases its report examining the impacts of mental health on people’s lives, the economy and our productivity.
February 2021
After almost two years and more than 3,200 submissions, the royal commission’s final report is delivered(opens in a new window), making 65 recommendations which the Victorian Government commits to implementing.
August 2022
The new Mental Health and Wellbeing Act is passed. Work begins in earnest on the non-legal advocacy opt out service and IMHA expansion and establishment of a co-designed mental health legal service.
September 2023
New laws come into effect so that every person receiving compulsory treatment in Victoria is connected to an independent advocate through IMHA, unless they don’t want it(opens in a new window). This sees an increased presence of advocates in services and weekend access to intake advocates.
January 2024
In a submission(opens in a new window) to the government’s review of compulsory treatment criteria and alignment of decision-making laws, we call for widespread reform that will lead to the elimination of compulsory treatment in Victoria.
September 2024
A key component of the new Mental Health Legal Rights Service (MHLRS) model, the MHLRS Helpline, commences in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, the Mental Health Legal Centre and us.
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