Department of Health

Introducing the Independent Review Panel

  • 31 January 2023
  • Duration: 2.53

My name's Shane Marshall I’m the chair of the Independent Review Panel.

I'm Flick Grey, I'm part of the independent panel as someone who has lived experience of involuntary treatment.

My name's Lisa Sweeney. I am a carer and a family member of someone who has received compulsory mental health treatment over many decades.

My name is Erandathie Jayakody and I live with an enduring mental health condition and I use mental health support and a lot of peer support to manage my mental health.

My name is Richard Newton. I'm Professor of Psychiatry at Monash University and a consultant psychiatrist at Peninsula Health.

I was a federal court judge for over 20 years.

Previously, I've worked in a bunch of different roles in the mental health system, and before I worked in mental health, I worked as an academic researcher.

I'm a policy analyst and I've worked across the health, mental health and justice portfolios in Victoria.

Ultimately, the panel will be advising the Government on what, if any, changes are required to legislation. So, it assists having a former judge to perform that role, but not just any former judge. A former judge with lived experience of mental illness himself.

The independent review panel is hoping to simplify and clarify the way that compulsory mental health treatment works in Victoria's mental health system.

Compulsory treatment is when the state decides that a person needs to be treated for mental illness and treatment can be provided against their wishes.

The complexity of this issue is such that we can't think it in silos. We really need to be thinking about this together.

We're excited about the range of people we’ll be consulting. So that includes consumers, their families and carers, but also the different health professionals that are involved in mental health.

Peak bodies such as the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, Tandem, various workforce peak bodies, legal academics and decision makers.

As an academic, I am aware that there is very little supportive evidence for the use of long term community treatment orders.

There's a lot of knowledge out there about compulsory treatment. People have done a lot of thinking about this.

We need to have lots and lots of different perspectives and different thinking involved in thinking through compulsory treatment.

It's like getting all the specialist evidence required before you determine a view.

And the Royal Commission has been really clear that this is transformation we're seeking not system reform, but transformation. And so independence allows for that kind of thinking.

As we saw in the Royal Commission, there is a lot of opportunity for change and I'm incredibly excited to be a part of that.

And I'm excited about being in a position to present real reforms that are necessary to secure the mental health of Victorians.

Reviewed 01 February 2023