Mental health advocates hope a case in Victoria’s Supreme Court will provide vital guidance about the decision-making power of mental health tribunals across the country.
It involves a woman known only as Patient X, who lives with bipolar disorder, but many of the details of the case are subject to a suppression order.
In August 2013, she was involuntarily admitted for psychiatric treatment in a Melbourne hospital.
After a week, she applied to Victoria’s Mental Health Review Board – now known as the Mental Health Tribunal – to have her involuntary treatment overturned.
Eight days after that, the Board found she did not meet the criteria for detention and ordered her discharge.
But Patient X was free for only three hours. Her medical team, including a psychiatrist, ignored the order.
She was re-admitted against her will for treatment.
Victoria Legal Aid is representing Patient X in the state’s Supreme Court.
“What we’re concerned about is that just a matter of hours later, the treating team said, ‘No sorry, we’re not going to follow that decision of the review board,'” said Christopher Povey, Victoria Legal Aid’s program manager for mental health.
“We’re going to make you involuntary again.”
The case is important, Mr Povey said, because it involves something most Australians do not think about: the loss of freedom that comes from being forced against one’s will into psychiatric treatment.
“It’s a pretty serious step to say someone should be forced to accept mental health treatment and, not only that, detained in hospital,” he said.
What makes the case even more troubling, he said, is that decisions to discharge patients from the Victoria Mental Health Review Board are relatively rare.
Last year, there were 5,515 hearings before the Board. Only 333 – about 6 per cent – resulted in discharges.
Case to decide whether the Board has final oversight
Mental health advocates have said they will be watching the case carefully.
At the offices of the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, everyone has experience living with mental illness or emotional issues.
Acting director Liz Carr said mental health review tribunals are a crucial check and balance for patients who have been ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment.
She said it is troubling that their decisions can be simply ignored.
“We should all feel comfortable and confident that these things can’t happen without due oversight,” she said.
“So if we lose the oversight body, we’re all at risk.”
Advocates and legal experts said that more than anything, the hope is the case will provide guidance on the issue of whether the decisions of mental health tribunals are in fact final.
So far, there is little precedent to go by.
“There absolutely isn’t legal clarity. There’s a vacuum in fact. We don’t have guidance in Victoria but also throughout Australia,” Mr Povey said.
“We want to know what the impact and effect of a mental health tribunal is.”