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Mental Health Carers and the Mental Health Act
About this survey: Mental Health Carers NSW has been asked by the NSW Ministry of Health to produce new material to inform mental health carers of their roles, rights, and responsibilities under the Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW), and in relation to the Mental Health Review Tribunal.
The first stage of this project is to collect information on how carers are informed about the Mental Health Act. We are interested in finding out the experience of carers when the person they care for is taken to hospital and provided with treatment without their consent.
Who is this survey for? If you are a carer of someone who has been an involuntary consumer of mental health services within the last five years, we would appreciate it if you could complete this survey based on your knowledge about what, and how, information was provided to you.
What is this survey for? Your responses will help in two ways: 1. to identify the information needs of carers 2. to help us to understand how carers are informed about the Mental Health Act and the Mental Health Review Tribunal.
Your Privacy: The survey is consistent with the Privacy Policy of Mental Health Carers NSW. The Privacy Policy can be found here https://www.mentalhealthcarersnsw.org/mhcn-privacy-policy/
How long will this survey take? The survey will take about 15- 20 minutes to complete. It is completely anonymous. No personal details about you will be collected. The responses will be kept confidential. If direct comments are included in any report we will ensure they do not allow a reader to identify who made the comment.
Further Information:
This survey is about carers access to knowledge about the Mental Health Act in NSW. The Mental Health Act allows a doctor to sign an order to keep a person in hospital without that person’s consent if the doctor believes that the person is mentally ill or mentally disordered and is a danger to themselves or to others. The Mental Health Act also provides powers to the Mental Health Review Tribunal to make an order to keep a person in a mental health facility or to receive care in the community without that person’s consent.
The Mental Health Act requires the doctors and other staff to keep carers informed and involved. This right of carers to be informed and involved applies at all stages of treatment including the emergency department, treatment in a mental health ward, in hearings of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and in the community after a Community Treatment Order has been made.
We want to know:
what information and explanation you wanted to receive about how the Mental Health Act
how you received this information.
You and/or the person you care for may not have liked what you were told, you may not have agreed with it or found the experience helpful. You may be asked your views about the way the Mental Health Act works in a different survey. This survey is only about the information you received to inform you about the powers of the hospital and the Mental Health Review Tribunal under the Mental Health Act.
Further Questions: Please feel free to contact Peta Smit-Colbran at Peta.Smit-Colbran@mentalhealthcarersnsw.org should you have any questions about the survey.
