[On-screen text: Matilda’s story, I wish I knew I had rights, above logos for Victoria Legal Aid and Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA).
[On-screen text: Acknowledgement of Country, This video was made of the lands of the Wurundjeri, Bunurong, Kabi Kabi and Jinibara peoples. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands across Victoria and pay respects to Elders past and present. We recognise the continuing connection to country, culture and identity and the importance of self-determination for creating better futures for First Nations peoples.]
[On-screen: Matilda appears on screen. She has bleached blonde straight hair to her shoulders and is wearing a white top.]
Matilda: My name is Matilda Van Elst and I am participating in this project because I experienced compulsory mental health when I was a teenager. In that time, I had over 30 admissions in 11 months in a children's hospital for an eating disorder.
[On-screen text: Why is it important for consumers to know about their rights?]
Matilda: I never knew that I had rights and looking back, I really wish someone had told me. I believe my time in the healthcare system would have looked a lot different. I was involved in decisions, however none of my preferences were followed and many were not acknowledged.
It is so great that companies such as IMHA are ensuring that young people are now aware of their rights and advocating for consumers, just like my mum tried to do for me at the time.
At the time of my admissions, my mum was the only person in my corner and we were never aware of my rights. Not only was I laughed at, but my mum who was advocating for what I needed at the time, it was laughed at and belittled by multiple doctors.
So hopefully, now that young people and their families are becoming more aware of their rights, they will receive the respect they deserve.
[On-screen text: What do you know now that would have made a difference?]
Matilda: I was never told I could write an advance statement of preferences. It was never explained to me what one was. It was never explained to me that if I wrote one, my preferences had to be considered.
It was never explained to me that if my preferences weren't followed, the doctors would have to provide in writing why they didn't follow them. Instead, when I asked for things that were helpful for me, I was told it was the eating disorder voice talking and my preferences were refused.
[On-screen text: In what ways was your dignity respected or not respected?]
Matilda: It's my right to have my dignity respected and promoted whilst receiving mental health services. So I don't understand how one of the head paediatricians for adolescents in a major hospital can tell a child to plan her own funeral.
How is that respecting and promoting my dignity?
[On-screen text: What would you have wanted someone to say or do in that situation?]
Matilda: I respond best to an approach that is care-focused and actually provides me with hope that someday I would make it out of the system, rather than an approach that was intended to make me feel terrible about myself.
[On-screen text: Did you ever get an opportunity to be heard?]
Matilda: My voice was taken away by never having the opportunity to have a tribunal hearing. I was discharged every two weeks right before a tribunal hearing would have been required.
It makes me question whether I even met the criteria to be receiving compulsory treatment or if they wanted to silence me even more by taking away my opportunity to have a voice at the hearing.
My mum was always my biggest advocate and would always speak up when I wasn't heard. When she did this, the doctors and specialists would tell her she was colluding with the eating disorder and was enabling the illness. My mum was the reason I recovered. She was the only person that listened and valued what I had to say in regards to how I needed my recovery to look.
I was always my own person and mum knew that the stock standard treatment wouldn't be what was most helpful for me, so we fought against the system until the end.
[On-screen text: How are you now?]
Matilda: And now I am happy and healthy and living my best life in Queensland in the sunshine with my beautiful puppy.
[On-screen: Matilda smiles and moves to turn the camera off.]
[On-screen text: Fairness, Care, Courage, Inclusion, www.legalaid.vic.gov.au, appears above the logos of Victoria Legal Aid and IMHA.]
[VIDEO ENDS]
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