Page 1914 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
include internationally recognised principles on assessment of decision-making capacity and guidance for services to work collaboratively with mental health family carers who often have an important role.
People making decisions under the act must take these principles and objectives into account. The 2006 UN convention on the rights of people with a disability, which applies in mental health, was ratified by the Australian government in 2007. The convention sets out equal recognition of people with a disability before the law, and equal access to justice, including the right of a person who has capacity to make their own decisions. This right has been enshrined in several areas of the revised act.
In almost all circumstances, people who have decision-making capacity will make their own decisions about treatment and care. However, existing criteria for an involuntary treatment order, including those concerning risk of harm to self and others, have been retained, and will continue to be taken into account.
For the first time, the draft act acknowledges advance agreements. These are similar to advance directives in broader health, providing the opportunity for a person, when they are well and have capacity, to negotiate the treatment they want when they experience an episode of illness. By utilising this opportunity for forward planning, advance agreements will extend the person’s say in their treatment to the time when they are unwell and help to promote a collaborative working relationship between consumers and services.
Under the proposed changes guardianship will have an expanded role because of the new emphasis on decision-making capacity. When a person wishes to accept treatment but is not able to give informed consent, guardians and attorneys will be able to provide that consent. This is preferable to the person receiving an involuntary mental health order when they are in fact willing to have treatment.
The proposed amendments include further limitations on electro-convulsive therapy, or ECT, which would be banned for children aged under 12. Between 12 and 18 ECT would require the approval of two psychiatrists, including one child and adolescent specialist, and an order by the tribunal. ECT for this age group is extremely rare but can be life saving. The new provisions are in line with changes in other jurisdictions.
As has been the subject of some media attention, under the proposed amendments ambulance paramedics would be provided with the legal power to apprehend and transport a person to a hospital for assessment. This power now exists in almost all Australian jurisdictions and enables people with mental illness to be transported to hospital in the manner that a person with any other illness would expect. Ambulance transport is recommended by the national safe transport principles and the measure has been widely acclaimed by stakeholders. ACT ambulance officers receive regular training in mental health and they have received training on the current act and the proposed changes.
The amendments also recognise the need to provide for a specialist treatment order when a person’s mental illness leads to offending behaviour and that behaviour involves a risk of serious harm to the community. This new order, called a forensic
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video