Done By Law

World Mental Health Week: 11 October 2011

Yesterday was World Mental Health Day, a day aimed at raising public awareness about mental health issues. So tonight on Done By Law, we’re talking about mental illness. People suffering from mental illness can sometimes be treated without their consent, both in hospital and in the community. When this happens, people can be subject to involuntary treatment because they can’t or won’t consent to treatment. Involuntary patients can be subjected to significant restrictions on their personal liberty. So what safeguards are there to protect their rights, and do the safeguards go far enough? Tonight on Done By Law we talk to Catherine Leslie, lawyer and policy officer at the Mental Health Legal Centre and Merinda Epstein, a consumer of mental health services and coordinator of Our Consumer Place, a resource for mental health consumers.