Page 1971 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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I realise the bill provides an overarching framework for how the facility will be managed and that the director-general will be allowed to issue subordinate instruments, referred to as directions, to deal with the detail as well as changes that need to be made quickly. I note that the directions will cover issues such as visitor protocols and contraband and allowing the director-general to amend quickly the directions as needed.
One concern I have regarding such directions being made and issued quickly is whether this could be problematic. It is possible for directions to be made that, for example, disempower visitors to the facility. Could this have a negative impact on the patients or the visitor, given the visitors play an important role in the stability and wellbeing of those who will be in the facilities?
Carers may also be visitors. We know that carers are often the people who have carried the heavy load of supporting a loved one who has suffered a mental illness and we know that a carer is almost twice as likely to experience depression. So it is important that we are mindful of the mental health of carers or former carers and family members who will visit these facilities.
I am aware that the Mental Health (Secure Facilities) Bill 2016 will provide the structure to facilitate the management and the opening of the secure mental health facility. However, I note that it does read quite a lot like the Corrections Management Act, with sections on monitoring mail, scanning, frisking, strip-searching patients, dealing with a patient who may have concealed a weapon. It also includes the power to seize property, property searches and managing the use of force with patients.
We know that the vast bulk of those in this facility will be moved into the facility from the Alexander Maconochie Centre and that such clients will already be familiar with a corrections facility conducted in the sense of a jail. However, it is possible that there will also be, from time to time, patients who are not convicted of any offence—perhaps on community mental health orders—who have never had exposure to a jail and have never had any interactions with corrections. Yet, under this act, within this facility how these vulnerable clients will be treated remains to be exactly understood, with treatment more usual as such in a corrections facility rather than the more normal treatment that people may expect, given that it is a health facility.
I am assured that there will not often be a mix of corrections patients alongside patients from the non-convicted population. However, how will expectations, fears and dangers be managed? I am told such detail is still under development. I still have some very real concerns about the blending of men and women in this facility. We know there are, from time to time, issues with that matter in the adult mental health unit. How will the safety of each individual as well as staff be managed?
There have certainly been problems in the adult mental health service with various dynamics between individuals and others. We know, certainly if we look at the prisoner population in the AMC, there have also been various dynamics among individuals, partners, ex-partners, relatives, people they have known outside in the community. Given that this facility has been designed to be rather open plan, I have
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