The Victorian government is refusing to confirm whether it will publicly apologise and compensate mental health patients who had their human rights violated while undergoing treatment.
A damning report commissioned by the state government and released by its authors on Tuesday called for restorative justice after it found multiple mental health patients had been mistreated within the system.
The findings show victims were subjected to traumatic incidents while undergoing mandatory mental health treatment, including seclusion and restraint, and coercive treatment such as the use of induced comas.
The report authors recommended public apologies, individual reparations and a truth-telling process to hear and document cases it says are unresolved.
“On average, those within Victoria’s mental health system may lose 30 years of life due to the medications they are forced to take,” the report said.
“Some also die waiting for help … while detained, they may be sexually assaulted.
“These experiences sit within living memory of the widespread use of lobotomies, insulin comas and other practices that are now regarded as inhumane.”
Incidents of racism, sexual assault and violence were also reported.
The Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, a consumer peak body, said the report was alarming.
“Patients have had, and still have, their human rights violated every day in Victoria’s mental health system where harmful practices such as seclusion, physical restraint and mechanical restraint continue to be used,” a spokesperson said.
While systemic flaws were highlighted during a 2021 mental health royal commission, the report found truth-telling and acknowledging harms were not the focus.
Critics previously argued the inquiry did not completely address the full extent of harms inflicted and human rights violations.
After consultation between the awareness council and then-mental health minister James Merlino in May 2022, Victoria’s health department commissioned advice on how the government could formally acknowledge harm.
Mental health advocate Simon Katterl led the project.
“Let there be no doubt that there are gross human rights violations being committed within the mental health system on a daily basis and we really need to, as a matter of urgency, start acting on this,” he told AAP.
Premier Daniel Andrews said he had not read or been briefed on the report.
“That lived experience coming out of the royal commission … was a very, very important part of considering what was wrong with the system and also laying out a plan to build a better system,” he told reporters.
When asked about claims the department told the author not to make the report public, Mr Andrews referred questions to Mental Health Minister Gabrielle Williams, who declined to comment.
Mr Katterl said he provided a briefing to Ms Williams in July 2022.
“We led with our recommendations in July 2022 and it is very concerning that close to a year later (Mr Andrews) doesn’t know anything about it,” he said.
The report, prepared from May 2022 to February 2023, involved a reference group of 10 consumers, survivors, family members, carers and supporters with lived experience.
A Victorian health department spokeswoman said it spoke with people with lived experience following the mental health royal commission in 2021, which made 65 and nine recommendations respectively across its final and interim reports.
“The department established an advisory group, involving people with lived experience and other relevant expertise, to consider options for acknowledging people’s experiences,” she said in a statement.
Work is under way to deliver 90 per cent of the royal commission’s recommendations but opposition mental health spokeswoman Emma Kealy said the Andrews government has failed to fix the state’s broken system.
“It’s people living with mental illness and ill-health that continue to suffer,” Ms Kealy said.
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