Recommendation 52

What the Royal Commission said

The Royal Commission recommended that:

1. Safer Care Victoria (SCV) create a mental health improvement unit by 1 January 2022.
2. the new unit focuses on:
   • reducing restrictive interventions towards the goal of elimination in 10 years
   • reducing compulsory treatment
   • preventing gender-based violence
   • preventing suicides in mental healthcare settings.

SCV is Victoria's lead quality and safety agency tasked with improving quality and safety in Victorian health services.

Reform provides the opportunity to work with mental health and wellbeing service providers to ensure care is safe, connected, appropriate and effective.

What we've achieved

• The Mental Health Improvement Program was established within Safer Care Victoria in 2021, to lead statewide quality and safety improvement across mental health and wellbeing services.
• The Program works with mental health and wellbeing services to:
  • provide system leadership on quality and improvement
  • provide professional, clinical and practice leadership
  • promote awareness and understanding of high-quality service delivery
  • co-design quality and safety improvement programs with people with lived experience
  • issue practice guidelines and frameworks.
• The Program also focuses on:
  • reducing the use of seclusion and restraint in mental health and wellbeing service delivery, with the goal of elimination in 10 years (Recommendation 54)
  • reducing compulsory treatment (Recommendation 55.4)
  • improving sexual safety in mental health inpatient units
  • implementing the Zero Suicide Framework in healthcare settings.
• Through this Program, we have delivered coordinated improvement efforts across key areas identified by the Royal Commission, including reducing restrictive practices, improving sexual safety, reducing compulsory treatment and strengthening suicide prevention.

What we’re doing

• The Office of the Chief Psychiatrist has a legislated role to provide clinical leadership and expert clinical advice, working with services to support continuous improvement. It partners with the Safer Care Victoria’s Mental Health Improvement Program and supports engagement with the sector.
• This includes hosting regular sector-wide forums and issuing bulletins to address quality and safety issues in mental health service provision and promote continuous improvement.