Title: IMHA About Us
Producer: Independent Mental Health Advocacy
Name of speaker: Muskaan Ahuja and Ellisa Scott (all speech content)
Speech Content:
Independent Mental Health Advocacy, or IMHA, is a free service for all people on compulsory treatment orders, as well as people who feel they are at risk of compulsory treatment. IMHA supports the consumer to understand and exercise rights under the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act. Rights are rules that are meant to protect consumers under the law. IMHA provides information on rights and options.
We support consumers with choosing a nominated support person, making an advance statement of preferences, making referrals to services, supporting you to self-advocate, telling the treating team what you want, and connecting you to other services such as the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission or the Second Psychiatric Opinion Service. IMHA provides representational advocacy to consumers. This means we are consumer led and only take direction from the consumer.
What does this mean for the consumer? We will listen to them and hear what they want in relation to treatment. This means we won't tell the consumer what they should or shouldn't do with their treatment. We will provide information and choices for consumers to make their own decisions. This means we won't advise on what we might think is in their best interests.
We will go through all their options so the consumer can decide what works best for them. With the consumer's consent, we can talk to their treating team. We will only advocate for what the consumer wants, and we will tell the consumer what the treating team have said to us if they have chosen to not be there during the conversation. We can also help the consumer to speak up for themselves and what they want. This is called self-advocacy.
IMHA will be notified at key points when a consumer is getting compulsory treatment. We will be notified when a temporary treatment order or a treatment order is made, a person's right to communicate has been restricted, a temporary treatment order or treatment order has been varied from community to inpatient or inpatient to community, a temporary treatment order or treatment order has been revoked or cancelled, a restrictive intervention is used, such as if the person is put in seclusion or is physically or chemically restrained, or a transfer to a secure extended care unit is made.
For security patients, there are a range of notification points. For example, we will be notified when a court secure treatment order or secure treatment order is made, a security patient is received at or transported to a Designated Mental Health Service, or a security patient is discharged back to prison.
Likewise, for forensic patients, there are a range of notification points. For example, we will be notified when a temporary treatment order or treatment order is made, a forensic patient is transported to a Designated Mental Health Service, except if the Forensic Leave Panel approves the transport or is otherwise directed by an authorised body, or a forensic patient is directed by their psychiatrist or the Chief Psychiatrist to be transported to another Designated Mental Health Service. For more information about security and forensic patients, see the Statement of Rights documents available at www.health.vic.gov.au.
When we receive a notification about one of these things, we will contact the consumer by phone, or we may come to see them when we are visiting the inpatient unit. Consumers can also call us if they need support. What happens if a consumer doesn't hear from us? They can call or email us. We may have tried to call them on their mobile and they don't have it with them, or their phone number has changed.
If the consumer doesn't want us to contact them, they can opt-out. They can do this by calling us on 9093 3701, emailing us at IMHAadmin@imha.vic.gov.au, or filling out the form on our website at www.imha.vic.gov.au/optout. Scan this QR code to go directly to the website.
If the consumer changes their mind later and now wants us to contact them when receiving compulsory treatment, they will need to let us know so that we can take them off the opt-out register. IMHA also provides information sessions for consumers and services, rights talks in inpatient and community settings, supported decision-making training for mental health professionals and systemic advocacy.
Systemic advocacy means we provide feedback on recurring issues that we see. We provide feedback to Designated Mental Health Services and oversight bodies such as the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission and the Office of the Public Advocate. IMHA attends all Designated Mental Health Services across Victoria, and we are present in all inpatient units. We have a phone intake advocacy service that operates seven days a week, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Intake workers call people we have had notifications for and respond to people calling us to seek our assistance, including consumers, supporters, and professionals.
We have offices across Victoria. Our offices are located in Shepparton, Bendigo, Broadmeadows, Melbourne, Geelong, Sunshine, Ringwood, Dandenong and Frankston. There is a senior advocate at each office who provides support to their team of advocates for that region, and three managers who sit across three regions in Victoria. There are dedicated senior consumer consultant and consumer consultant roles. They use their own lived experience to make sure the service is informed by consumer expertise.
Our consumer advisory group, Speaking From Experience, ensures that consumer perspectives are central to our services. The program manager, project coordinators team, and administration service officers and coordinators team are based in the Melbourne office. IMHA has a range of resources made to support consumers to be informed of their rights and to self-advocate. Our resources include fact sheets, videos, posters, postcards, and an online self-advocacy tool.
We have resources available in different community languages and in First Nations design. You can find these resources on our website or by contacting us. You can get in contact with IMHA any time if you want help or support. You can visit our website at www.imha.vic.gov.au. You can contact us via email at IMHAcontact@imha.vic.gov.au.
You can call our phone line on 1300 947 820, seven days a week between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Or you can call and listen to a free audio recording of your rights on 1800 959 353 at any time. You can ask the Mental Health Service, a carer, or a support person to help you contact us. You can ask us for an interpreter if you need one.
For more information, visit our website. You can scan this QR code to take you directly to our website.
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Reviewed 12 April 2024