Suchergebnisse

Australian mental health services continue to use involuntary measures in response to consumers' mental distress. Regardless of the intent behind these practices, the experience of being forced to receive treatment, be secluded or restrained is traumatic and can cause further distress and harm. Other parts of the health or social service system have shifted to approaches that emphasise agency, social context, prevention, and rights. Three frameworks currently used in mental health services – human rights, personal recovery, and trauma‐informed – are consistent with a shift away from the use of force. We applied these frameworks to the text of the National Standards for Mental Health Services 2010 to analyse the degree to which it reflects a shift. We also analysed the public text of speakers' notes from the Care Without Coercion Conference 2012 concerning lived experiences of force in mental health services. The analysis highlights force in many aspects of policy. The findings have implications for directions of change, including freedom from violence; support for decision making; access and choice about community and inpatient options; safety and risk management; and greater understanding of current policy frameworks through engagement with people with lived experience about the options and impact of support processes that exclude the use of force.

AbstractBackgroundPeople with intellectual disability experience higher rates of mental health disorders than the rest of the population, and expert opinion holds that multiple barriers prevent people with intellectual disability from accessing appropriate services.MethodsA qualitative study was designed to explore the lived experience of barriers and enablers to access to mental health services among people with intellectual disability. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with people with intellectual disability, carers and service providers.ResultsBarriers and enablers were identified across four key dimensions of access: utilization of services; service availability; relevance, effectiveness and access; and equity and access. These factors operated at both systemic and personal levels.ConclusionsThe findings from this study provide empirical evidence of anecdotal experiences of access to mental health services and provide insight into the ways users, carers and service providers navigate an often hostile system and indicate further directions for research.