PRINCIPLES
1. People who experience mental illness should live free from stigma and discrimination, with maximum opportunities for inclusion in society.
2. Social environments should promote mental health.
3. Public mental health services must be fully funded, enabling timely high-quality intervention in mental illness in people of all ages.
4. Mental health therapies should be evidence-based, cost-effective and human rights compliant. The government should encourage the development of the evidence-base across the range of psychological, social and biomedical interventions and support ongoing evaluation of established services.
5. Peer support is a valuable and important part of mental health service provision.
6. Mental health therapies that seek to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation or gender identity are harmful and damaging and should be condemned.
7. Access to secure, appropriate, affordable housing is a crucial determinant of mental health and well-being.
8. People with lived experience of mental ill-health can provide invaluable perspectives on service design and delivery. Their engagement should be proactively encouraged and supported, including in leadership roles.
AIMS
1. Increased resources and protected funding, resulting in improved access and reduced waiting times for community mental health programs and clinical services.
2. Increased availability of mental health beds across Victoria, including respite and Prevention and Recovery Care Service beds.
3. Improved triage and admission processes for people experiencing acute episodes of mental ill-health in hospital emergency departments, and the development and provision of accessible, fit-for-purpose alternative options for acute episodic mental health care.
4. Mental health services to adopt a trauma-informed care approach.
5. Greater equality of service provision between geographical areas and planning to meet need in areas where the population is growing.
6. Differentiated and properly funded mental health services targeting groups with specific needs.
7. Improved measures to increase the recruitment and retention of an appropriately qualified and experienced mental health workforce, noting in particular the value of lived experience and the challenges inherent in workforce development for rural and regional areas.
8. Improved mental health education for staff and access to clinical services for education facilities, prisons, police stations and immigration detention centres.
9. Training for police and correctional officers in mental health crisis intervention techniques.
10. Reduce the use and duration of compulsory treatment on a year-by-year basis and gather and publish service-level and system-wide data in this regard.
11. Protection of the human and civil rights of people experiencing mental illness including protection of inpatients from physical and sexual abuse.
12. Affordable accommodation solutions for people with ongoing mental illness, to address their high rate of homelessness and incarceration, and supported accommodation for those requiring ongoing supervision.
13. Employment programs and job opportunities for people with a history of mental illness, and an end to the ability of employers to ask job applicants to disclose current or past mental illness unless it can be demonstrated to be relevant to the position.
14. Improved communication between mental health services and other members of the healthcare team.
15. More government support for carers of people with a mental illness, including respite programs, supporting ageing carers and improving funding for care packages.
16. Ensure free and readily available access to legal representation for all consumers who appear before the Mental Health Tribunal.
Mental Health Policy as amended by State Council on 20th August 2022.