Crimes Mental Impairment consultation paper.pdf - Victorian Law ...

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2.94 The CMIA’s therapeutic aims are also reflected in the approach taken by the key service
providers responsible for the supervision and treatment of people subject to orders under
the CMIA. For example, Forensicare has a strong focus on the rights and roles of people
who are subject to the CMIA, known as ‘consumers’. Forensicare has described this
as follows:
Forensicare has made a commitment to delivering recovery-orientated mental health
services and embedding recovery principles in our clinical practice. These principles
acknowledge that consumers have a right and responsibility to be an integral part of their
own treatment and recovery. 92
2.95 Forensicare works to maximise opportunities for consumers to play a central role in
decision making about service delivery and their personal treatment options. 93
2.96 The Office of the Senior Practitioner in the Department of Human Services is responsible
for protecting the rights of people with a disability who are subject to restrictive
interventions and compulsory treatment. One of the Senior Practitioner’s stated values
is to ‘promote wellbeing and social inclusion.’ 94 The Senior Practitioner has a focus
on promoting rights of people with an intellectual disability. For example, in 2010, a
program was piloted that aimed to ‘empower people with a disability subject to restrictive
interventions with knowledge about their rights and responsibilities.’ 95 The Office of the
Public Advocate also works to promote and protect the rights and dignity of people with
disabilities.
2.97 A key issue identified by the Commission’s preliminary research is whether there are
adequate safeguards for the protection of the rights and promotion of responsibilities for
people with an intellectual disability under the CMIA.
2.98 The provisions on suppression orders in proceedings under the CMIA also reflect the
notion that the process should be therapeutic if possible, rather than stigmatising. Section
75(1) provides that a court may make a suppression order in any proceeding under
the CMIA, if it is ‘in the public interest to do so’. 96 Included in the public interest is the
important interest of the person and their ‘progressive rehabilitation not being deflected
or defeated’. 97
2.99 However, the other important interest to be balanced in the concept of ‘public interest’ is
openness of the judicial process. Under this principle:
The powerful and fundamental value of the community’s knowledge of the judicial
process in its midst should not be whittled down by a developing habit of suppression. 98
92 Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (Forensicare), above n 81.
93 There are a number of ways that Forensicare seeks to achieve this, including Consumer Advisory Groups, Patient Consulting Groups and
Consumer Consultants: see Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (Forensicare), above n 81.
94 Office of the Senior Practitioner, Department of Human Services, Senior Practitioner Report 2010–11 (2012) 5.
95 Ibid 24.
96 Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (Vic) s 75(1).
97 Re PL [1998] VSC 209 (15 December 1998) [27].
98 Ibid.
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