Why human rights matter for mental health
Geoff Harris, Executive Director, Mental Health Coalition of South Australia says we need a Human Rights Act to ensure everyone accessing mental health services is treated with dignity, equality and respect.
When we think of mental health services, we often think of access to psychologists or psychiatrists, wait times and even medication. In our current climate we often hear rhetoric around beds and hospital care.
But for all the talk, these mental health services are usually just for a few hours or a few days in a person’s life.
The rest of the time is ordinary life -– the struggles and the joys, sickness and health.
In our last opinion piece, we talked about massive underfunding of psychosocial supports that help people to get the best out of ordinary life and avoid crises.
Our failure to fund holistic mental health support means that many people are not getting the support they need to lead their best lives.
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And this is where the greatest value can come from a human rights-based approach.
Everyone, regardless of where they are at with their mental health, must be treated with dignity, equality and respect. These human rights principles are essential to ensuring that South Australians receive the care and support they need while maintaining their autonomy and freedom.
In an over medicalised system with extreme focus on the hospital end, human rights thinking can seem radical and impractical.
But associated with this approach, people with lived experience point out the significant risk of traumatisation and re-traumatisation associated with engaging with mental health services, particularly where involuntary treatment may be enforced.
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There is a raft of good changes proposed to the SA Mental Health Act in the recent Review by the South Australian Law Reform Institute which may, for example, reduce the prevalence of involuntary treatment orders.
But fundamentally, although Australia has signed up to the relevant human rights conventions, the absence in South Australia of a Human Rights Act means the basic human rights of people accessing mental health services are inadequately protected under existing legislation.
The voices of lived experience are seen as just one group of stakeholders amongst many in mental health debates.
Enshrining human rights in legislation is crucial for providing a framework that guides mental health systems and services. It ensures that the voice of lived experience is central to improving processes and that rights and responsibilities within the community are recognised and protected. Without human rights legislation, we run the risk of adopting mental health legislation that fails to meet international expectations on delivering the basic rights of holistic, effective mental health support as well as dignity and respect.
The World Health Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have both emphasised the importance of adopting a rights-based approach in mental health care settings to address discrimination and human rights violations. They have produced a practical checklist for countries to use to assess whether their laws align with current human rights obligations. Failure to do this, means that we falling behind and out of step with the rest of the world. Without overarching human rights legislation, acting on our human rights obligations in mental health is not clearly mandated.
South Australia’s mental health system needs a Human Rights Act and we will be voicing our support for one to the relevant Social Development Committee inquiry in Parliament in November.
