Right to decide? Review of the Guardianship and Administration Act
Written by Jordana on April 10, 2012 – 2:11 am -The Victorian Law Commission recently undertook a review of the Guardianship and Administration Act and it has delivered a report to the Attorney General which is being tabled in Parliament within the week. The review recognised that the current guardianship laws in Victoria draw a sharp line between capacity and incapacity, and has looked at alternative arrangements which move from substituted decision making to supported decision making. Supported decision making has been recognised in the 2006 United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons With Disabilities and is defined by the Mental Disability Advocacy Council as an arrangement “premised on the fact that with proper support a person who would otherwise be deemed to lack capacity is, in fact, able to make personal decisions”. Tonight on Done By Law we discuss this important issue with Robyn Mills, the Program Manager for Victoria Legal Aid’s Mental Health & Disability Advocacy Program.
Tags: administration order, Disability, disability rights, guardianship order, human rights, mental health, substitute decision making, supported decision making, Victorian Law Reform Commission
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World Mental Health Week: 11 October 2011
Written by Jordana on October 11, 2011 – 1:27 am -
Tags: Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, community treatment orders, human rights, iatrogenesis, involuntary patient, involuntary treatment orders, mental health, mental health act, mental health legal centre, mental health review board, Our Consumer Place
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mental health and the right to choose
Written by marian on May 12, 2009 – 4:40 pm -
Mental health consumers can very quickly lose their right to participate in decision making. Once people are deemed incapable of consenting or are unwell, they are often excluded from meaningful participation in life and treatment decisions. Joining us tonight on Done by Law is Sara Clarke, Project Worker at the Mental Health Legal Centre to discuss how advance directives might work and why they are important. Advance directives or ‘living wills’ as they are sometimes known, are one way that consumers can seek to maintain empowerment and dignity over their own lives in a way that will in both the short and long term keep them well.
Tags: mental health
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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.
Tags: involuntary patient, mental health, vcat
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