Lacking Insight - Community Law

Lacking InsightConsumers’ Level of Understandingof the Review ProcessPreparation for the hearingIt is generally held to be the case by stakeholdersthat consumers need to be better prepared for theirBoard hearing. There are a number of improvementsthat can be made in regard to the provision ofinformation and the types of information given toconsumers prior to a hearing.Some stakeholders did not suggest advocacy as away of ensuring a fair process in terms of preparationfor a hearing; however, others believed that anadvocate would invariably be advisable.[I believe that hearings could be improved byhaving]… a booklet given to patients about therole of hearings and what is expected of themin very simple language. There should be avideo produced that actually shows the patientswhat they should expect from a hearing. I thinkpatients who are due to appear before the Boardshould be taken to the room where the Boardwill come and just have instructions as to wherethey will sit. I think that the document writtenabout patients should be given to the patientsand the staff long in advance of the hearing. Thisis an important thing. I think patient’s relativesshould have enough warning about Boardhearings and that people are not notified an hourbefore or the day before. The Board shouldorganise themselves and should be available. Ithink that the session itself needs to be muchmore therapeutic and reassuring to patients andhave some values coming out of it to show thepatients, apart from just simply saying where theywill stay. It should be much more than that.Senior PsychiatristStakeholders told researchers that the level ofconsumer understanding of the review process hasbeen inhibited by the explanatory information that hasbeen supplied by a number of sources. Stakeholdersbelieve that consumer comprehension of materialexplaining the Board process may improve if theexplanation is more succinct.I think there is a lot of information around but I’mnot always convinced the information is in theforms that are best for people.Where I have concerns, if that’s the rightword, is . . . that we’ve got out a lot of writteninformation, the Department puts out a lot ofwritten information, the Legal Centre’s put outinformation, I mean there is plenty of informationaround, but whenever I talk to groups andwhenever I talk to services I mean the level ofknowledge is not always as good as what youwould expect given that level of information.So one of the issues, obviously, is about thedigestible forms of information that are right forpeople at particular points in time. Some of that’srelated to the nature of people with a mentalillness at different stages of their illness, some ofit’s related to the sorts of people that are involvedin this jurisdiction; and some of it’s simply relatedto the nature of the information we’re trying toput across. So I guess what I’m saying with myconcern is that I’m always trying to find ways ofgiving information successfully and I don’t thinkwe’ve come to the 100% point on that, we’vecertainly done better I think in recent times thanwe perhaps did in the past.Board President68