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Opening minds to mental illness

15 October 2008

Professor Bernadette McSherry

A $2 million dollar five-year Monash University research project aims to make Australia a world leader in legal protection and entitlements for people with mental illness.

Multiple studies across Australia over the past two decades have found that a lack of access to proper treatment for people with mental illness has led to serious problems, including self-harm, substance abuse, homelessness and family breakdown. A high proportion of people in prison suffer from psychosis, depression or anxiety disorders.

Improving mental health services is an obvious remedy for these problems -- but the development of laws that ensure services can be effectively accessed by those in need is also critical, according to Monash University law Professor Bernadette McSherry.

Professor McSherry, who spoke at the University's 50th Anniversary public lecture last week, said efforts to improve services would only work if there were appropriate laws in place to shape the way people with mental illness could access high standards of care.

"The law governs how hospitals, community services, service providers and other aspects of the mental health system operate and coordinate avenues for mentally ill people to get the treatment they need," Professor McSherry said.

"The major problem with Australia's mental health system has been people not being able to get treatment at all or not getting sufficient treatment, particularly for high-incidence illnesses such as depression."

Professor McSherry's research team will conduct more than 200 interviews in countries including Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England, Ireland and Canada. They will talk to policy makers, judges, health professionals, consumer representatives, carers and other people involved in mental health systems to gain extensive information on the systems in each country.

The ultimate outcome will be the development of a comprehensive framework of best practice principles that Australia's state, territory and Commonwealth governments and governments overseas could use to create the best possible mental health laws.

"National legislation is great in theory but it's not going to work in practice. A framework is different; it gives governments options in terms of how they actually couch their laws," Professor McSherry said.

For more information on the research project visit the Faculty of Law website.

For more information on the 50th Anniversary Public Lecture Series visit the 50th Anniversary website.