Recommendation 53

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission recommended the establishment of a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. This Commission will carry out oversight functions that involve monitoring, inquiring into, and reporting on system-wide quality and safety. It will be an impartial body that holds the government to account, and a source of strong leadership that inspires system-wide cultural change.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission will hold the Victorian Government accountable in relation to:

• the performance, safety and quality of the mental health and wellbeing system, including public health and prevention efforts; and
• progress in implementing the Royal Commission’s recommendations.

It will prioritise the following areas in its oversight role:

• the use of seclusion and restraint
• the use of compulsory treatment
• the incidence of gender-based violence in mental health facilities
• the incidence of suicides in healthcare settings.

The Commission’s oversight functions will extend to all providers funded by the Victorian Government to deliver mental health and wellbeing treatment, care and support. This includes services delivered by public health, community health, non-government and private organisations. It also includes delivery in hospitals, the community, public and private prisons, and police cells.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission will have powers to handle and investigate complaints about mental health and wellbeing service delivery, conduct inquiries into systemic issues, and provide advice to Victorian Government ministers.

As part of this recommendation, the role of the current Mental Health Complaints Commissioner will transfer to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.

What are the opportunities?

The opportunities that arise from the establishment of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission are:

• a strengthened architecture for quality and safety that places consumers at the centre and enables system-wide oversight
• a strengthened regulatory regime for reducing the use of compulsory treatment and restrictive practices
• increased capacity to identify, analyse and monitor specific practices that occur within mental health and wellbeing services
• a coordinated approach to promoting quality and safety
• increased opportunities for consumer leadership and participation in efforts to deliver high-quality and safe mental health and wellbeing treatment, care and support.

Update

Information about this recommendation is being updated.

Please check back here for information updates.

The Victorian Government has committed to implementing all recommendations of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Rebuilding Victoria’s mental health system is a 10-year reform plan, with implementation being done in a staged and sequential way. The 2021-22 Victorian State Budget invested $3.8 billion in mental health and wellbeing services and responding to the Royal Commission’s recommendations.

All work is focused on ensuring Victorians get the mental health treatment, care, and support they deserve.