Page 2109 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 May 2013
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detainee. The bill requires that a doctor or the correctional centre notify a Mental Health Act official visitor as soon as practicable after the detainee starts to receive treatment but not later than 24 hours after the detainee starts receiving treatment or care in the place. This amendment strengthens the operational effectiveness of the act and is consistent with the notice provisions elsewhere in it.
In response to feedback from community stakeholders and official visitors, the bill will provide more broadly for collaboration between official visitors across more than one operational area. For example, if a young person with disability is detained in a youth correctional facility, the official visitor for the correctional facility may ask an official visitor appointed under the Disability Services Act to accompany her on a visit to that facility. The amendment emphasises the government’s broad intention that official visitors under the new scheme will operate collaboratively for the benefit of the vulnerable people the scheme seeks to serve.
The bill provides for official visitors to access any health record or other record relating to an entitled person at a visitable place if the official visitor has that person’s consent. The bill also lists examples of the records official visitors may inspect. These may include behavioural plans, dietary plans, medication lists, records detailing the use of any restrictive practice, seclusion or the use of chemical restraint, day plans, lists of rostered carers and any other medical or care record.
The bill will require a request to see an official visitor to be notified to an official visitor as soon as practicable but not later than 24 hours after the request is made. This amendment reflects a more balanced approach to notifying official visitors, since the scheme is not designed as a rapid response model.
The bill establishes the Official Visitors Board. The board responds to concerns about the absence of collegiate and professional support and guidance for our official visitors. The board is proposed as a representative panel to arrange training for official visitors, facilitate interactions between official visitors, arrange for the provision of administrative assistance to them and exercise any other function given to it under this act or another territory law. The board would facilitate administrative separation from operational agencies.
Its composition will help to dispel notions of direction or control of official visitors by any single stakeholder and will operate to reduce the likelihood of official visitors being directed or influenced by any single board member. To ensure the board’s independence and its appearance of independence, there will be no government representative on the board.
Official visitors will continue to communicate directly with their operational ministers, as well as reporting to the Attorney-General. It is not intended that the board will have any role in determining the functions of official visitors. The board will be made up of the Public Trustee as chair, the Public Advocate, a representative of the Human Rights Commission and two official visitor representatives. The Human Rights Commission will be represented by a commissioner as determined by the commission. This will allow flexibility and continuity in cases where there are issues around conflicts of interest in matters being considered by the board or where a commissioner is unable to attend a meeting.
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