Page 3848 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
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Forensic mental health orders also require an increased role for the ACAT in determining the treatment, care and support measures to be provided to a person subject to a forensic mental health order. This includes considering leave applications for people who are detained in an approved mental health facility or approved community care facility on a forensic mental health order. Improved information-sharing protocols and new entitlements for people entered onto the affected persons register also form part of the suite of forensic provisions.
The bill also provides a new scheme for the transfer of certain detainees with a mental illness from a correctional centre to an approved mental health facility. The bill defines a correctional patient as a detainee with a mental illness for whom a mental health order or a forensic mental health order cannot be made. The detainee must have decision-making capacity and consent to treatment, care and support, including transfer to the facility.
The purpose of the bill, therefore, with respect to correctional patients is to make certain that this small, important group of detainees can effectively access inpatient mental health treatment while providing appropriate mechanisms for the oversight of their transfers. The bill supports people subject to the criminal justice system who are living with a mental illness or disorder by identifying and providing for their care, treatment and support.
The bill, taken as a whole, is, I believe, a good demonstration of the government’s commitment to ensuring that the rights of the vulnerable, particularly those caught up in the criminal justice system, are properly protected. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Visitor
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the next speaker, I would like to recognise that a former member of this place, Mr David Lamont, is in the gallery. We welcome you this morning.
Mental Health (Treatment and Care) Amendment Bill 2014
Debate resumed.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Higher Education and Minister for Regional Development) (11.31), in reply: The Mental Health (Treatment and Care) Amendment Bill 2014 arises from an exhaustive review of the Mental Health (Treatment and Care) Act. The act is now 20 years old and over that time there have been significant changes to the environment in which it operates. These changes include greatly increased funding of services from the federal and ACT governments, changes in mental health service delivery, particularly the adoption of the recovery model, and the advent of the ACT Human Rights Act and other human rights advances including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
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