Mental health advocates have warned that changes to the Mental Health Act would be futile without more training or more staff at Canberra’s adult mental health unit.
Changes to the act are expected to be debated in the ACT Legislative Assembly today.
The changes would give people more control over the treatment they receive when they are unwell.
Ben Matthews from the ACT Mental Health Consumer Network said the new guidelines would empower patients and give them a sense of control.
“There’s a really good broad-based change around involuntary treatment,” he said.
“The consumer can put in place when they’re well instructions on what sort of treatments they do want, what sort of treatments they don’t want.
“That can range from medications to the use of ECT [electroconvulsive therapy].
“Those agreements are legally binding and have to be followed. It can be overturned by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, but unless there are really good reasons not to follow the directives they are legally binding.”
But Mr Matthews said the new guidelines would have no impact unless staffing levels were increased.
“We can have a very good act but if we don’t have the appropriately trained staff and appropriate numbers on the ground, the act could almost not really be that useful,” he said.
“That’s probably one of the biggest concerns we have that unless staffing levels are increased, it will really inhibit the sort of effective introduction of the new guidelines.”
Mr Matthews would like to see methods such as seclusion and restraint removed as options in the adult mental health unit.
“It removes their dignity and it can often make them very angry with the system, which can then in turn lead them to not wanting to access services,” he said.
“But it’s been shown that with the right process and with the right training of staff, seclusion and restraint can actually be reduced to nearly zero.”
Violence has been an ongoing issue at Canberra’s mental health unit since its opening in March 2012.
The nurses union and ACT Health admitted some level of violence in acute mental health facilities is inevitable, but largely blamed a lack of resources.