Page 4916 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994
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MINISTER FOR HEALTH
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTION
QUESTION NO. 1501
Mental Health Legislation
MR STEFANIAK: Asked the Minister for Health - In relation to the Mental Health (Treatment and Care) Act 1994.
(1) What will be the monitoring process of the Act during the two years prior to its review.
(2) What procedures have been put in place to enable the Standing Committee on Social Policy to monitor the operation and effectiveness of this new Act.
(3) What is the nature of the consultation process, if any, to allow ongoing input by service providers and organisations involved in the mental health field.
(4) What facilities are in place for community groups to have input and feedback from the Standing Committee on Social Policy.
(5) What facilities are in place for community groups to obtain necessary information to monitor the operation of this Act.
(6) What assurance is there of independent monitoring of the adequate working of the Act.
(7) Will there be an independent monitoring body to ensure objective and independent scrutiny of the application of this Act, especially in relation to:
a) the reasons for which persons are placed under compulsory treatment orders; and b) ensuring that persons to be placed under treatment orders are given a full and adequate chance for legal representation, or person representation by a person of their choosing, before a treatment order is made out on that person and before that person has received treatment of any kind, particularly drugs, Electro Convulsive Treatments (ECT), or other intrusive treatments.
(8) What guarantees are there that under this new Act that compulsory and involuntary detention of persons considered mentally dysfunctional is any more open to scrutiny by the community than it has been until now.
(9) What guarantees are there that persons placed under an order of noncommunication are placed under such an order for adequate reasons.
(10) What independent authority will scrutinise such orders to ensure that they only scrve the welfare of the patient.
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