“From Asylums to Community Care and Beyond – Human Rights and Mental Health: Lessons from History”

The changes in mental health systems over three centuries have been vast. Changes have been informed by both science and social movements, here and abroad.

In South Australia we have applied new developments in our changing mental health landscape and improvements have been substantial. However in spite of this, and the commitment of the sector, problems recur. We see this today in achieving access to care, upholding human rights, the preventable use of restrictive practices in some settings, the delivery of culturally safe care for Aboriginal people, homelessness, the risk of abuse and exploitation of people, the over representation of people experiencing mental illness in prisons, and implementing effective suicide prevention for the wider community.

Date: 6 September 2023
Time: 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Location: South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000
Orator: Dr John Brayley MBBS, FRANZCP, Chief Psychiatrist, SA Health
Tickets

History and contemporary experience can help us understand and find answers to questions, such as these:

• What is the impact of marginalisation and discrimination on individual mental health and the development of appropriate care?
• What solutions exist to facilitate recovery and hope, including the “lived experience” movement, applying current international models in mental health, and influencing attitudes and stigma reduction both within the sector and beyond?
• Where are we with reform of mental health legislation to meaningfully apply well regarded principles for delivering care and support mental capacity?
• How might Aboriginal communities supported by the sector progress new models for Aboriginal mental health and well-being?

Overarching this is the question of to how to uphold universal human rights obligations in a tangible and objective way. For answers to be found and for stigma and marginalisation to be overcome, the involvement of the entire community is needed, and lessons from the past identified, acknowledged, and reconciled by all of us individually and collectively.

About Dr John Brayley

Dr John Brayley is the Chief Psychiatrist in South Australia, a position he has held since 2018. He has academic status as Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Adjunct Associate Professor in Health Management at Flinders University.

Having worked previously in roles in both mental health and general health, Dr Brayley has been Director of Mental Health for South Australia, the Public Advocate for South Australia, and Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection in Canberra. He has had a particular interest in supported decision making – assisting people to make their own decisions – which is required by Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

As Chief Psychiatrist in the post-Oakden period in SA, he and his team have established a new inspection regime for mental health services, implemented a new standard to reduce – and eliminate where possible – the use of restrictive practices in mental health services. The team have undertaken policy and planning work to facilitate the provision of innovative models in crisis mental health care and undertaken the technical work behind the Suicide Prevention Act 2021, which has been a national first for South Australia.