NSW MENTAL HEALTH DISGRACE EXPOSED

The NSW Government has been accused of breaching human rights in a horrific review of the States Mental Health System by former judge, Greg James QC.  The mental health report was silently released a few days before Premier Iemma boasted a victory for NSW mental health patients, by saying suicide and readmissions had been reduced.  But the figures statistically are only in the report it forward.

Dr. Richard Matthews from NSW Health said the statistics were included as health outcomes that “we are pretty certain” followed as a result of Government initiatives.  Judge Greg James QC was adamant about the 34 recommendations he said were needed to rescue the mental health forensic patient system.

In the review of the NSW forensic mental health legislation, Judge James accuses the Government of unfairly detaining mental patients based on “political considerations.”  The review, dated August 2007, criticises the Government’s treatment of mentally and developmentally disabled people accuse of a crime.

“The system is cumbersome, length, overly bureaucratic, resource intensive, operated without transparency or accountability,” the report reads.   A mentally ill person accused of a crime can be incarcerated for a longer period than the sentence they would have served had they in reality been convicted of the offence, he said.