MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

Venetia Bombas & Catherine Leslie, Solicitors, Mental Health Legal Centre Inc.

Services in the community
In-patient services
Consumer and community-managed services

The MHA sets out a number of important statements about the quality of care all types of patients should receive, including matters such as dignity, privacy, independence, participation in treatment decisions, treatment near home where possible, and recognition of age, gender, and religious, cultural, language or other special needs. For example, prescription of medication should meet the patient's best health needs and should be given only for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes and never as a punishment or for the convenience of others (ss.4, 5, 6 & 6A).

Additionally all public mental health services (both community and in-patient) must act compatibly with the human rights set out in the Charter when providing services. Private bodies, including consumer and community-managed services, which perform public functions on behalf of government must also act compatibly with Charter rights (s.4 Charter).

Both public and private mental health services should:

provide care and treatment for people with a mental disorder that are at least equal to those provided for people with other sorts of illnesses;
take into account age, gender, religious, cultural, language and other special needs of those with a mental disorder;
provide services that are comprehensive, accessible and intervene at an early stage;
minimise the adverse effects of mental disorders on the individual, the family and the community;
ensure that people with a mental disorder are informed of complaint mechanisms and their legal rights under the MHA in language they are most likely to understand; and
support people with a mental disorder in the community.

Services in the community

Community-based mental health services offer a variety of services to people who have a mental illness, including those who have been in psychiatric in-patient services.

Each area mental health service has a crisis assessment and treatment team (CATT) which deals with urgent situations, and a mobile support team (MST) for clients who are unable to access their local mental health service. The members of these teams are usually doctors, psychiatric nurses or social workers.

In-patient services

In-patient services provide short-term and long-term care and treatment for people whom it may not be possible to treat successfully in the community. Most of Melbourne's large metropolitan hospitals have a specialised psychiatric inpatient facility. In addition there are a number of specialised units such as mother and baby units, eating disorder units, psycho-geriatric facilities and a forensic hospital.

Consumer and community-managed services

A number of government and non-government services provide assistance for people with a mental illness in Victoria. Some of these services offer accommodation, counselling, support for relatives and friends, advocacy and self-help, and day centres, etc.

Further information on these can be obtained from Psychiatric Disability Services of Victoria (VICSERV) and the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, a consumer-run advocacy organisation. For contact details of these organisations, see: "Contacts" in Chapter 16*1 Disability Overview.

Complaints

Any person may make a complaint about treatment or care provided by a mental health service to either the Chief Psychiatrist, or the Health Services Commissioner. A complaint about an individual doctor or psychiatrist can be made to the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency. For more information see Chapter 19.1 Health Law.