Title: I want to feel safe
Producer: Independent Mental Health Advocacy
Name of speaker: Wanda Bennetts (all speech content)
Speech Content: Do you feel unsafe while you're receiving compulsory mental health treatment? You might not know it, but the Victorian Mental Health and Wellbeing Act says you have rights that mental health services must respect.
Independent Mental Health Advocacy, or IMHA, helps people to learn about and use their rights. This video is a guide to your rights and options if you are feeling unsafe.
Safety means different things to different people. Examples can include physical safety, emotional safety, cultural safety, sexual safety, spiritual safety, and financial safety.
You always have the right to safety. Some specific rights you have are the right to liberty and security. For example, a mental health service can only keep you in a hospital against your will if they follow the law. The right to have your individual needs respected and responded to. For example, the mental health service should provide you with an interpreter or connect you to an Aboriginal health worker if you wish.
The right to the least restrictive assessment and treatment possible. For example, the treating team should consider your reasons for wanting or not wanting a treatment such as the benefits and side effects of the treatment. Sometimes it can help to reflect on why you feel unsafe. Some issues may be caused by the behaviour of others towards you, concerns about your treatment that are not being addressed, or the layout or hospital environment.
It may help to write them down. If you know that you feel unsafe, you may want to try the following. Learn about your rights using our know your rights fact sheets, use strategies that you know worked in the past, speak to someone you trust, and let the service know what you need in order to feel safe.
Sometimes you may want help. IMHA can assist by providing you with information and advocacy about your rights. Other services that can help are the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist, legal services, such as Victoria Legal Aid and the Mental Health Legal Centre, sexual assault and family violence services such as 1800 Respect, and emergency services.
If you would like to learn more or talk to an IMHA advocate, you can call us on 1300 947 820, hear a recording of your rights on 1800 959 353, see our website on www.imha.vic.gov.au, or see our fact sheets which should be available at your service.
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