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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 3049 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

In addition, while I hope the provision will never need to be used, I believe that government should have the capacity to protect the community from persons who pose a significant risk to others, yet cannot be satisfactorily dealt with by the criminal justice or mental health systems.

In other provisions of the Act we have been anxious to increase human rights protections for persons who access psychiatric facilities, whether as voluntary or involuntary patients. The establishment of an official visitors scheme will provide independent scrutiny of the ACT's psychiatric facilities for the first time. Official visitors will be able to visit any psychiatric facility in the ACT, with or without notice, and inspect rooms, talk to patients, read registers, evaluate facilities and services and hear complaints.

Official visitors will be required to report to me, as Minister, and the Community Advocate after each visit. I will also require an annual report of the work of official visitors to be made available to the Assembly.

The official visitors scheme should not imply that the Government is concerned about the level of service in psychiatric facilities in the ACT. In fact, I am pleased with what I have seen so far in the ACT and I am very supportive of the continuation of the move from institution-based care to community-based options. However, I am sure we can all accept that the creation of official visitors may make our facilities try that little bit harder to achieve the best clinical practice guidelines.

Other amendments to the Act include the following: Changing the objectives in the Act to require the inclusion of consumers and carers in mental health policy development, service planning, service delivery and evaluation; providing that involuntary seclusion is only used to prevent harm and only for as long as such a danger exists; all instances of involuntary seclusion will be advised to the Community Advocate, entered into the patient's record and recorded in the appropriate register; reducing the size of the Mental Health Tribunal to a single person so that all deliberations of the tribunal are open to the person subject to the proceeding; changing references to the Director of Mental Health to the Chief Psychiatrist, which will clearly demarcate the clinical responsibilities of the Chief Psychiatrist from the administrative responsibilities of the executive director of ACT Mental Health Services; and providing an additional assessment period of a maximum of seven days where, on sound clinical grounds, it has not been possible to complete an assessment on a complex client.

There are a number of other minor and consequential amendments to the Act which reflect a consensus position from our consultations. The proposed amendments seek to refine the Act which was passed in 1994. The Bill I present today is a sign of the Government's commitment to an evolutionary improvement to health outcomes for people with mental illness while balancing the need to protect the interests of the community as a whole.

Debate (on motion by Mr Wood) adjourned.

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