Submission in response to Western Australia’s
Draft Mental Health Bill 201
Contact:
Dr. Judy Hyde
President – ACPA
[email protected]
The Australian Clinical Psychology Association
PO Box 1242
Broadway NSW 2007
ABN: 90 142 080 617
P: 0468 828 585
E: [email protected]
Hon Helen Morton MLC
Minister for Mental Health
Western Australia,
Dear Minister Morton,
Re: Draft Mental Health Bill 2011
The Australian Clinical Psychology Association (ACPA), the national body representing
clinical psychologists with accredited post-graduate training in the speciality, writes with
serious concerns about the Draft Mental Health Bill 2011 proposed by the Mental Health
Commission in Western Australia. While we fully support the wish of the Government of
Western Australia to provide for the protections and rights of patients and improve service
delivery, while treating people with respect and dignity, we believe that this Bill proposes to
remove rights of individuals in such a way as to seriously transgress the human rights of
those with mental illness, particularly children. This Bill, in fact, removes the rights and
protections of those with mental illness and endangers children in particular.
In the Mental Health Bill 2011, Part 12 it states that person must not perform a sterilisation
procedure on a person unless
(b) if the person —
(i) is a child [emphasis added] who has sufficient maturity and understanding to
make reasonable decisions about matters relating to himself or herself;
This ‘right’ places the burden of irreversible and significant decisions in the hands of children
unable to understand the potential implications of such a decision as they become adults and
their life circumstances change. A child has no capacity to make decisions about their
lifetime fertility without requiring the consent of an adult responsible for their care. Such a
choice made by a child about an adult function is very likely to have a serious long-term
impact on the mental health of the individual. No child (under the age of 18 years) should be
permitted to make such a serious and irreversible choice as they do not have the maturity or
capacity, or the foresight, to make such momentous decisions in regard to their future. This is
why a person in Australia is not of a marriageable age until 18 years, despite marriage not
being irreversible.
Similarly, the Mental Health Bill 2011, Part 11 Division 1 gives children of 12 years the
right to consent to electroconvulsive therapy, while Part 11 Division 3 gives children of 12
years the right to consent to psychosurgery. Psychosurgery is an irreversible operation
cutting directly into the brain, with little known about the impact on the growing brain of
children. Similarly, little is known about the impact on the growing brain of
electroconvulsive therapy. Such procedures are serious and irreversible, and decisions
regarding such assaults to the brain should be left in the hands of children who do not have
the capacity to comprehend the nature of the assault or its long-term consequences. Such
decisions require an adult responsible for the child with an understanding of the risks, side
effects and outcomes to make decisions on their behalf.
Finally, we are deeply concerned that an “authorised mental health practitioner” may detain a
person under this Bill when there is not a stipulation that only those mental health
practitioners with accredited training in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental
health problems are authorised persons. This leaves the public at the mercy of mental health
practitioners who have not had the training to be properly evaluate an individual’s mental
health problems and determine an appropriate treatment requirement.
ACPA thanks the Government of Western Australian for consulting on this Bill. We hope
these serious contraventions of the human rights can be rectified and the proper protections
for those suffering mental health problems can be established.
Yours sincerely,
Judy Hyde
President,
Australian Clinical Psychology Association
Mental Health Minister, Health Minister and your local Member of Parliament.