Your Rights as a Patient

The Mental Health Act Victoria 1986 (the act) is the most significant part of the law associated to the care and treatment of people receiving mental health services.  An up to date copy of the Act should be accessible for you to read at the hospital or the community mental health clinic.

As a patient /client using mental health services in the state of Victoria, the more knowledge you have regarding these laws, the better you are able to ensure your rights are not infringed upon.

The Act refers to "mental illness" and "mental disorder".  Because their mental illness meets the criteria for involuntary detention, the majority of involuntary patients in Victoria are admitted to an inpatient facility and held as involuntary patients.

The Act defines mental illness as a medical condition characterised by a major disturbance of mood, perception, thought and / or memory. Depression, schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorder and bi-polar affective disorder are some examples of mental illness.

Books such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) are used by psychiatrists to help describe and diagnose Different mental illnesses.  These should be in the hospital or clinic as well.

It is in your rights to ask your doctor if you are unsure or in doubt about your diagnosis.

"Mental disorder" includes "mental illness", plus a range of conditions which are not mental illnesses for the purposes of the Act.  Some mental disorders, such as personality disorders, are not "mental illnesses" under the Act and cannot, as a rule, be the starting point for involuntary treatment.

A small group of people who have a severe personality disorder and who engage in self-mutilation may be held in hospital for a period of time because they are considered to have a mental disorder.  These people must first be held because they also have a mental illness. This mental disorder group affects very few people.

Things That Are Not Mental Illness

You cannot be considered mentally ill under the Act only because:

1.   You express or refuse or fail to express a particular;

• political opinion or belief
• religious opinion or belief
• philosophy
• sexual preference or sexual orientation

2.    You engage in or refuse or fail to engage in a particular;

• political activity
• religious activity

3.    You engage in;

• sexual promiscuity
• immoral conduct
• illegal conduct

4.    You are intellectually disabled

5.    You take drugs or alcohol

6.    You have an anti-social personality

7.    You have a particular economic or social status, or

8.    You are a member of a particular cultural or racial group

* Some information on this page has come from the booklet "Patients' Rights - A Self-Help Guide To The Victorian Mental Health Act" produced by the Mental Health Legal Centre.