A feature in The Age, “Number of mentally unwell Victorians killing their parents doubles…” includes a reference to a submission Mind Australia made in 2019 to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. This reference presents our submission in a different context. The reference and the article are not reflective of our views on the important subject of family and carer wellbeing.
The Age reports: "The coroner’s request reiterated a plea to the royal commission more than five years earlier by Mind Australia. In a July 2019 submission the support agency warned that mental health carers and families were unsafe."
We said in our submission that “too many mental health carers and families feel unsafe in the mental health system.” This was followed by an iteration of the ways in which the system lets people with mental health challenges and their families and carers down. At no point did our submission suggest that we need more or longer involuntary incarceration of people with mental health challenges.
Our vision for mental health reform is clear in this 2019 submission and consistent with our position for many years, and most recently expressed in our election response.
We believe emergency, crisis responses to mental health are no substitute for early intervention and a community-centred mental health system - government funding and policy reform must ensure people can get support where they are, in community.
We believe it’s time for governments and policy makers to act on the evidence and insight of lived experience to enable a more effective and humane mental health system - and then demonstrate this in policy directions and funding.