Mental Health Bill 2014

Queensland Minister for Health, Lawrence Springborg, has introduced the Mental Health Bill 2014 (the Bill) to the Queensland Parliament. The Bill’s primary purpose is to improve and maintain the health and wellbeing of persons with a mental illness who do not have the capacity to consent to treatment or care.

Overview of the Bill

The Bill is the result of the extensive review of the Mental Health Act 2000 initiated by the government back in 2013. The review identified a number of issues currently plaguing mental health patients in Queensland that are being addressed by the Bill.

Primarily, the Bill provides for the treatment and care of persons with a mental illness that, because of the illness, cannot make decisions about their own treatment and care. The Bill provides for this while at the same protecting the patient’s rights by providing that treatment can only occur where the patient is unable to consent if there is a serious risk of harm to the patient or others around them.

The legal authority to treat a person in this situation will be passed to a treatment authority rather than an involuntary treatment order as it is currently. The Bill introduces the ability of a patient to appoint in advance a nominated support person who has rights to receive information and support the patient under the Bill. The Bill also expressly provides for authorised mental health services to record advanced health directives so that the patient can be treated under directive rather than through involuntary treatment under this Bill.

The Bill also addresses the issue of unlawful acts committed by persons suffering from a mental illness. Such a person may request a psychiatric report be prepared on whether, in the opinion of the psychiatrist, the person was of unsound mind at the time of the alleged offence or is unfit for trial. However, the Bill retains the Mental Health Court to make decisions on whether a person was of unsound mind at the time of the alleged offence or is unfit for trial.

Justice examination orders have also fall under the scope of the Bill’s amendments. These orders occur where a person applies to a magistrate or a justice of the peace for someone else to be involuntarily detained and examined for mental illness. This has caused a lot of public concerns as these orders can at times be issued inappropriately. The Bill will be substantially tightening up this authority by requiring any applicant to receive clinical advice, such as from an authorised mental health service, before considering an application. In addition, all applications are to be made to the tribunal, which has expertise in dealing with a person’s mental illness.

Comments from the Mental Health Commissioner

Queensland Mental Health Commissioner, Dr Lesley van Schoubroeck, said that the Bill will provide stronger protections for patients and increase transparency and accountability with the regime. Dr van Schoubroeck said the replacement of justice examination orders with examination authorities overseen by the Mental Health Tribunal was welcome. The power to require someone to have a mental health examination will also now need to consider advice from a doctor or mental health practitioner:

TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.

New mental health legislation introduced

Mental Health Bill 2014 as reproduced on TimeBase LawOne