World Mental Health Week: 11 October 2011

Written by Jordana on October 11, 2011 – 1:27 am -

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.

 
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DBL: A taxi driver’s licence: Unpicking the law and media coverage 2 december 2008

Written by alex on December 2, 2008 – 1:53 am -

This week on Done By Law, we speak to expert Sophie Delaney, the Coordinator of the Mental Health Legal Centre about the media beat up related to a VCAT’s recent decision to grant a taxi driver his licence. This taxi driver had been found not guilty of a charge of murder by way of insanity. VCAT’s Deputy President weighed the circumstances up and approved the driver’s application for his licence. We examine the Victoria Government’s response that this calls for retrospective legislation to prevent VCAT exercising its discretion, which was mislabelled a loophole. Sophie discusses the issues surrounding supression orders in matters where people are found to be impaired. We also touch on the recent review of involuntary patient’s treatment in psychiatric hospitals.

 
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